tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Feb 28 08:05:54 2012
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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: HoH'egh
> Klingon word: HoH'egh
> Part of speech: verb
> Definition: commit suicide
Never used in a sentence
Language notes:
st.k 11/1997: For example, there is an entry for "commit suicide" just in case anyone wants to look that word up; but the Klingon equivalent is simply {HoH'egh}, literally "kill oneself" ({HoH} "kill" plus Type 1 verb suffix {-'egh} "oneself").
Cultural notes:
KGT 49: Since dying in battle is considered a noble aspiration, suicide missions are a part of the Klingon military repertoire, and the honorable nature of such missions accounts for their nomenclature. The honorific verb suffix {-neS}, usually used when addressing a superior, is also used when the verb refers to a suicide attack of some kind: {HIvneS}, awkwardly translated as "honor-attack", implies that suicide is part of the plan of the attack. Similarly, {HubneS} ("honor-defend") is used only when suicide is part of the defense plan. To say "attack honorably" but not refer to a suicide mission, the adverbial {batlh} is employed and the suffix {-neS} is not: {batlh HIv} ("attack honorably, attack in an honorable fashion").
Despite the considerable sophistication of Klingon technology, significant gaps exist in Klingon medical science, in part due to cultural biases that injured warriors should be left to die or to carry out the *Hegh'bat*. (TNG "Ethics")
*Hegh'bat* in the Star Trek Encyclopedia, p. 124:
"Literally translated as 'The Time to Die'-ritualized suicide. Klingon tradition held that when a Klingon was unable to stand and face his enemies, he should choose the Hegh'bat. The rite called for the eldest son of the celebrant, or a trusted friend, to deliver a ritual knife to the warrior, who would impale himself in the chest. The son or friend would then remove the knife and wipe it on his sleeve. Following a severe spinal injuring in 2368, Lieutenant Worf considered the Hegh'bat."
Trek notes:
TKW 147: After being paralyzed from the waist down as the result of an accident, Worf at first felt his life had ended and decided to commit ritual suicide ({Heghbat}).
TKW 176: Worf decided to commit suicide in the traditional Klingon manner, the {Heghbat}. He asked Riker to help him and hand him the knife, but Riker pointed out that, following tradition, that role belonged to Worf's son, Alexander.
The knife used in TNG "Ethics" was the same wicked looking pronged, serrated knife seen in TNG "Night Terrors"; was this a {qutluch}?
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
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