tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jan 14 07:40:41 2014

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: Say'qu'moH

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



> Klingon Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 14, 2014
> 
> Klingon word: Say'qu'moH
> Part of speech: verb
> Definition: sterilize
> Source: HQ:v1n3p9

"make very clean"!  IIRC the context was WRT medical and surgical devices.  Note the (hopefully) metaphorical use of {Say'moHchu') in the Anthem:

  yoHbogh matlhbogh je SuvwI' Say'moHchu' may' 'Iw 
  The blood of battle washes clean the warrior brave and true. (Anthem)

Klingons obviously have different standards of cleanliness than Federation weaklings! <g>  Cf. also the common simile {puj; bIQ rur} "weak as water":

KGT 35:  The Klingons equate water with weakness. Anything is better than water; the less waterlike, the better.

KGT 161:  because of the Klingon association of water with weakness (as opposed to the strength of blood or ale, for that matter)

TKW 34f.:  Just as blood is used figuratively to refer to power, water carries the opposite and negative connotation of lack of control. Strength cannot coexist with weakness within an individual or a successful society. The negative associations with water might also be seen when Worf remarked to Counselor Deanna Troi, "Swimming is too much like bathing."

KGT 91:  The verb {HaH}... is now often used in the more general sense of "soak, drench". It is frequently heard in the reflexive form ({HaH'egh} "soak oneself") in reference to such activities as drinking a great deal, which has positive connotations, and bathing, an occasional undertaking with negative connotations.

Related vocabulary:

Say'  			be clean (v)
Say'moH  			wash (v)
Say'moHwI' tlhagh  	soap (n) TNK

watlh 			be pure (v)
lam 				be dirty (v)

Trek trivia:

The alien Tan Ru probe's original mission was to gather and sterilize soil samples as a prelude to colonization. By 2267 Nomad's new mission was to seek out and sterilize imperfect biological infestations (life forms). (TOS "The Changeling")


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons



_______________________________________________
Tlhingan-hol mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.kli.org/mailman/listinfo/tlhingan-hol



Back to archive top level