Hey, thanks for all the interesting replies, people!
I can just imagine the odd looks you get for saying 'Homus!' whenever you look at someone's house.
In response to Little Freak, 'Evil Tali!' is how we interpret the words spoken when you click to send one of your men to the mines. It's as if they fear and resent some God called Tali, a God they hold accountable for their lives of hard labour in dangerous conditions, as mineworkers!
This always reminds me a little of the old mid-1980s movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, where the supposedly evil High Priest of the temple (the one who sacrifices captives by lowering them into a well of lava) invokes a God of a different but rhyming name, Kali, in the course of this ritual. You may recall that there are extensive mines right underneath the main sacrificial chamber!
But to be honest I'm not sure if it's really meant to be 'Tali' or something else like 'Talu' or 'Toil' or even 'Tallow' or 'Tolly' (not that 'Talu' or 'Tolly' mean anything in English). And maybe it's not even 'Evil' but something like 'Evu' that has no meaning in English.
Perhaps one of the game designers can settle this for the record!
In any case, we'll probably still say 'Evil Tali!' when something bad happens... at least until Age of Empires is a distant memory (which is not looking like happening any time soon).
Cheers,
Solger