tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 19 11:04:57 2001
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Re: coward (RE: Another idea about {-vo'})
RNButler:
> A question how do you call some a coward in Klingon?
De'vID
: I find {nuch} rather uncreative.
Seems short and to the point to me. {nuch} in canon:
vubpu' jon nuchpu'; jonbe' tlhInganpu'
Cowards take hostages. Klingons do not. TKW
nuchpu'!
Cowards! KCD
"These {nuchpu'} fear the very weapons they sell." (KCD novel p.85)
There is a widely understood idiom for cowardice:
qagh Sopbe'
He doesn't eat gagh! TKW
which is explained by Okrand:
"Everyone loves gagh, so if one is not eating it, something must be
wrong. This expression is used to to mean that there is something
wrong with someone or that someone is acting suspiciously. It is
also a way to refer to someone as a coward. For Klingons... this
is a rather mild dismissive remark, not a strong insult." (TKW 137)
: {Qa'Hom} may be slightly better.
Nope. {Qa'Hom} can apparently be applied to someone (or some animal) that may
act like it's a vicious {Qa'} - a much larger, dangerous animal - but is, in
fact, just a little, harmless creature, fluffing itself up to make itself look
bigger. Calling someone a {Qa'Hom} obviously implies that he is weak and
unable to defend himself and, thus, not worth killing. (At least, this is how
Gowron uses it in the introduction to the KCD Immersion Studies.) Such a
preposterous person may well be a coward as well, but that is not the primary
meaning of this epithet.
: {petaQ} is overused, and doesn't really mean coward though I
: suspect it's among the implications.
KCD states that:
"No appropriate translation for this epithet has yet been found."
But for those interested, here is just a sampling from my notes of how {petaQ}
- Paramount's favorite Klingon insult - has been used in various spellings:
Romulan Gen Jarok sees Worf and asks Riker, "Tell me, how do you allow this
Klingon pahtk to walk around in a Starfleet uniform?" (The Defector)
Duras is communicating with Arbiter of Succession Picard about the
Sonchi-ceremony for K'mpec. He sees Worf, at the time discommended, enter the
bridge. "Keep that pahtak away from the ceremony, Picard! He has no place on a
Klingon ship." (Reunion) -
J'Ddan, a Klingon exobiologist working on the Enterprise, is suspected of
sabotaging the warp core. As discommended Worf escorts him to his quarters
where he is to be confined, he tries to persuade Worf to help him steal a
shuttle and escape in exchange for helping Worf to regain his honor. Worf is
silent, but when they reach their destination he hits K'Ddan several times and
snarls at him, "I don't know how you transferred secret information to the
Romulans, but I will find out!" The man spits out "petaQ!" Worf continues: "And
when we inform the High Council, they will put you to a slow death!" (The
Drumhead)
Worf says there's evidence of a Klingon having been abroad a Federation
outpost, where messages have been stolen. Klingon governor Torak isn't pleased:
"You still try to blame us!" "Have the courage to admit your mistakes," Worf
says, "or are you a lo'Be Vos?" "At least I don't wear the uniform of a p'tak!"
Torak retorts. (Aquiel)
Kahless has apparently returned from the dead but Gowron is not a believer. As
he is transported aboard the Enterprise, Picard is there to welcome him. "Where
is he, Picard?" "I assume that you're referring to Kahless." "I am referring to
the filthy pahtk who's using his name!" (Rightful Heir)
Quark has been kidnapped and awakens in a room in the presence of Tumek, an
elderly Klingon. "Where am I?" ... "You are in the ancestral home of what used
to be known as the House of Kozak." "What's it called now?" "Kozak died without
a male heir... the house no longer has a name." "What about Kozak's brother,
D'Ghor?" "That pahtak's name is not spoken in this house! He is no brother to
Kozak! His family has been a sworn enemy to this house for seven generations!"
(House of Quark)
Three Klingons come down laughing from Quark's holosuites and notice some
Romulans sitting around the table. They surround the table and Morka speaks:
"Who let these filthy p'tahk in here?" Another replies "Maybe we should show
them the way out" (Visionary)
"Klingon" B'Elanna rescues weak and timid "human" B'Elanna from the Vidiians,
telling her to "Get up, p'tahk!" when she regains consciousness after fainting.
(Faces)
Kor calls Worf "this traitorous p'tak!" (The Sword of Kahless)
Worf throws a thief he caught onto Odo's desk saying, "This p'tak just robbed
my quarters!" (Bar Association)
Regent Mirror-Worf growls to Mirror-Garak, "So this is the p'tak who lost Terok
Nor to the rebels." (Shattered Mirror)
B'Ellana categorically rejects Tom Paris' suggestion regarding Ens Vorik: "I am
NOT helping that Vulcan p'tak." (Blood Fever)
The Doctor's holo-son Jeffrey shouted, "I'm going to become a warrior and I
can't do that if I'm being led around on a leash by some bloodless patahk!"
(Real Life)
"I'm leaving." "Not till you have completed the ceremony, p'tahk!" (Day of
Honor)
K'Tar glared at Qua'lon, then spit on the floor. "You petaQ! Your men have
ransacked my home. Taken my belongings, my treasures, beaten my son, dRacLa."
(KCD novel, p.166)
RNButler:
> In ST:FC Picard called Worf a coward and was wondering what word he might
> have used in Klingon
I don't know what Picard called him in First Contact, but K'mpec called him a
*bihnuch* in reply to Worf's formal admission of cowardice as part of the
discommendation ritual (TNG "Sins of the Father"). *bIHnuch* is listed in
ST:Continuum's Klingon Database. Apparently the writers looked up "coward"
{nuch} in the TKD glossary and added the verb prefix {bI-} to it, thinking that
this would mean "You are a coward." (Like a lot of beginners, they didn't
notice - or understand - the "n" tag following the word in the glossary.) What
K'mpec should have said, of course, was {nuch SoH}.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons