tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 15 13:48:01 1997

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Re: More New Words!

Thaddeus Vick asked:

>>> Could we use {mumHa'} to say "I don't like the flavor."?

And I responded:

>> Ignoring for the moment a literal translation of "distaste,"
>> wouldn't something like the above suggest that it is the item
>> eaten that is doing the tasting? That can't be right.

So he replied:

> Er, I didn't mean that as the whole sentence, but as a possible
> word that could be used in expressing the idea. A possible sentence
> would be {qagh mumHa' verengan}.

My turn again:

I'd still never get that meaning from it.  Your sentence would make me
think that there was something wrong with the Ferengi's mouth preventing
him from properly tasting the delicacy that is serpent worms.  Maybe the
Ferengi palate is physiologically biased against it, maybe they have a
different sensory array and their taste buds (or their alien analog) map
out differently, or maybe having drunk too much cloyingly sweet Terran
root beer they could not taste the worms.  You could follow any of these
scenarios with your sentence, and I believe other readers would
understand the meaning.  

But mis-tasting is probably a better rendering than dis-tasting here. 
If you mistasted something (oh, the fork with the food goes in my
*mouth*) or literally dis-tasted something, while you might find you
didn't like the experience, you might just as easily not have enough
data to render a judgment on the food.

I'm sure this word will come up repeatedly at the qep'a'.  I'll be
bringing qagh to the banquet (as I do every year).  We will sample, and
we will taste.  Given how messy the stuff can be, I'm confident some
will mistaste as well.

Lawrence
 

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