tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Feb 27 08:06:20 1998
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: 'ul
- From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: 'ul
- Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 10:00:55 -0600 (CST)
: ghItlh voragh
: >{'ul law'} - "many 'uls" or "a lot of 'ul"? This brings up another point
: >I've wondered about: is {'ul} a quantifiable mass noun referring to
: >electricity or electrical force in general (like {tlham} "gravity" or
: >{HoS} "power"), or a countable electric "shock" or "jolt", or both?
:
: It means "electricity." Look at:
: www.kli.org/tlhIngan-Hol/1997/Jul97/0796.html
: Look at -0813, too, to see the pun in it.
:
: qoror
I understand its derivation and the gloss in KGT, I was merely speculating
on what Klingons mean or assume when they say {'ul}. "Electricity" has
historically been used in a variety of ways just in English (cf. infra) and
it's naive to assume that two languages understand and use words,
particularly words for abstract physical concepts, in exactly the same ways.
Also consider the possible range of meaning among Klingon speakers
themselves. I imagine Klingon physicists use the word much more precisely
than the average Klingon in the street.
For those who are interested, according to the Merriam-Webster's CollegiateŽ
Dictionary:
elec.tric.i.ty n, pl -ties (1646) 1 a: a fundamental entity of nature
consisting of negative and positive kinds, observable in the attractions and
repulsions of bodies electrified by friction and in natural phenomena (as
lightning or the aurora borealis), and usu. utilized in the form of electric
currents b: electric current or power 2: a science that deals with the
phenomena and laws of electricity 3: keen contagious excitement
As you would expect, the Oxford English Dictionary goes into considerably
more detail:
electricity. f. electric + -ity.
1. In early use, the distinctive property of `electric bodies', like amber,
glass, etc., i.e., their power when excited by friction to attract light
bodies placed near them; also, the state of excitation produced in such
bodies by friction. Subsequently the name was given to the cause of this
phenomenon and of many others which were discovered to be of common origin
with it, e.g. the
electric spark, lightning, the galvanic current, etc. Franklin considered
electric phenomena to be due to a subtle fluid diffused through all bodies,
the excess of which above its normal quantity constituted `positive
electricity', and its deficiency below the normal quantity `negative
electricity'; but he also used `electricity' as a name for the fluid itself.
Others believed `positive' and `negative' electricity to be two distinct
fluids, which when combined neutralized each other. Before the formulation
of the present theory of atomic structure (see note to atom sb. 1), the
prevailing view was that electricity is `a peculiar condition either of the
molecules of the electrified body or of the ether which surrounds them'
(Syd. Soc. Lex.). The term `electric fluid' survived for some time in
popular language, and the names `positive' and negative' electricity (also
an inheritance from Franklin's theory) are still retained in scientific use.
Electricity may be developed by any means that produces disturbance of the
molecular condition of bodies: by friction (frictional electricity), by
chemical action (galvanic electricity), by heat thermal electricity), by
magnetism (magnetic electricity). Occasionally electricity and its elated
adjs. are used in a narrower sense with reference to the electricity
produced by friction, as distinguished from galvanism or from magnetic or
thermal electricity.
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. i. 51 Crystal will calefy into
electricity; that is, a power to attract strawes or light bodies, and
convert the needle freely placed.
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 79 Saltes..if gently warmed..will better
discover their Electricities.
1668 Phil. Trans. III. 850 Observations about the Electricity of Bodies.
1736 Butler Anal. ii. ii, Such powers in nature as magnetism and electricity.
1747 Franklin Lett. Wks. 1840 V. 195 Restoring the equilibrium in the bottle
does not at all affect the electricity in the man.
1770 Priestley in Phil. Trans. LX. 209 The difference of the two electricities.
1794 J. Hutton Philos. Light, c. 232 Electricity..is distinctly different
from both light and heat.
1803 Med. Jrnl. IX. 569, I began to use electricity, by small shocks.
1834 Mrs. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. xxviii. (1849) 310 Electricity may be
called into activity by mechanical power, by chemical action, by heat, and
by magnetic influence.
1837 Brewster Magnet. 273 Feebler electricities will..produce the sheets of
summer lightning.
1885 S. P. Thompson Electr. Magn. 9 Electricity may either reside upon the
surface of bodies as a charge, or flow through their substance as a current.
b. Preceded by adjs. denoting a. the source or mode of production, as
frictional, galvanic, induced, magnetic, thermal, vital, voltaic; b. the
place of development, as animal, atmospheric, organic; c. the quality, as
active, constant, free, negative, positive. vitreous, resinous electricity:
older synonyms for positive and negative electricity, which were first
observed as resulting from the friction of glass and of resinous bodies
respectively.
1755 Franklin Let. 14 Mar. Wks. 1882 V. 341 Their negative electricity [is]
increased.
1799 E. Darwin Phytol. 310 (T.) Two electrick fluids diffused together, and
strongly attracting each other; one..vitreous, the other resinous, electricity.
1832 Nat. Phil. II. Galvan. iv. Sect. 30. 12 (Usef. Knowl. Soc.) The
circulation of voltaic electricity produces an elevation of temperature.
Ibid. Electr. ii. Sect. 49. 13 The body is said to be negatively
electrified, or to have negative electricity.
Ibid. Electr. ii. Sect. 49. 13 Positively electrified, or to have positive
electricity.
1850 tr. Humboldt's Cosmos III. 189 Transitions of atmospheric electricity
to an opposite condition.
2. fig.
1791 Burke Regic. Peace i. Wks. VIII. 110 They [ambassadors] will become
true conductors of contagion to every country which has had the misfortune
to send them to the source of that electricity.
1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 175 Wait a little, till the entire nation is
in an electric state; till your whole vital Electricity..is cut into two
isolated portions of Positive and Negative (of Money and of Hunger).
1858 Hawthorne Fr. It. Jrnls. II. 24 The electricity of human brotherhood.
1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 73 The natural electricity of youth.
3. The branch of physical science which deals with the nature and phenomena
of electrical action.
1734 Desaguliers Course Exper. Philos. 450 Gray has found out several new
Phenomena in Electricity.
1796 Hunter tr. St. Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) I. 107 That new...wonderful
art of electricity, which screens their hotels from the thunder.
1885 S. P. Thompson (title) Lessons in Electricity and Magnetism.
4. Comb., as electricity-laden adj.
1884 Century Mag. XXVII. 922 The electricity-laden raindrops.
-- Voragh