tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 11 08:22:28 2004

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Re: the Fek'lhr?

Steven Boozer ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

lay'tel SIvten:
> > La koboldo atakis.
> > i just saw this on another list, and thought it was hilarious.  it was used
> > to explain a typo.

qurgh:
>I'm assuming, from the subject line, that this means something like HIvqa'
>veqlargh... but it looks more like "The kobold attacked"...
>Can you tell us what it means?

lay'tel SIvten:
> > that is what it means.  the similarity was funny.

*Koboldo* is Esperanto for "(hob)goblin, gnome, imp, evil sprite."  The 
word was borrowed from either German *Kobold* or Russian *kobol'd* - two 
languages Zamenhoff knew.  As for why the poster used it to explain a typo, 
cf. *preskoboldo* below.

I found a good definition of the word in Esperanto at:

     http://www.uni-leipzig.de/esperanto/voko/revo/art/kobold.html

KOBOLDO
Homsimila, ofte malbela etulo, el popolo gardanta trezorojn en montoj, au 
kas^e vivanta en hejmoj kaj jen helpa, jen plage s^erca al homoj. => 
<gnom.htm#gnom.0o>gnomo



GARDENKOBOLDO
Statua figuro de koboldo, kutime kun barbo kaj kapuc^o, ornamanta en Europo 
kelkajn privatajn plezurg^ardenojn: "imagu, ke vi darre ricevas reklamon 
pri g^ardenkoboldoj".

PRESKOBOLDO
S^erce imagita respondeculo pri preseraroj: "la preskoboldo forrabis la 
titolon".
[Cf. German *Druckfehlerteufel* or French *Titi Vilus* ("resp. myth. des 
fautes d'impression").]


Hmm... I wonder if the *preskoboldo* or the *Druckfehlerteufel* lies at the 
origin of the idiom {HIvqa' veqlargh} (which AFAIK we've never heard on 
screen)?  Does Okrand know Esperanto?  (I'll bet he does; most aspiring 
linguists probably go through an Esperanto phase!  I know I did.)



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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