tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 13 12:06:46 2003

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Re: Klingon WOTD: Qel (n)




>This is the Klingon Word Of The Day for Sunday, January 12, 2003.
>
>Klingon word:   Qel
>Part of Speech: noun
>Definition:     doctor, physician

As used in canon:

   Qel vISamnIS.
   I need to find a doctor. CK

   Even though Klingon doctors generally have thriving practices and a doctor
   is always part of a ship's crew, not only is being under a doctor's care
   considered a sign of weakness, but it is also regarded as a relinquishing
   of self-control. Klingons tend to avoid visiting doctors except under the
   most serious of circumstances and, as a result, doctors spend a great deal
   of their time tending to critically wounded patients and relatively little
   time performing routine examinations or practicing preventive medicine.
   The general term for "doctor" or "physician" is {Qel}, but a "surgeon", a
   doctor who actually manipulates the internal organs or bones of the patient
   and thereby is the most invasive, is a {HaqwI'}, "one who performs surgery".
   (KGT, 151)

B'Elanna once commented, "They say that the doctor who operates on himself 
has a p'tak for a patient." (VOY "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy")



-- 
Voragh                            "Damage control is easy. Reading Klingon 
- that's
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons      hard!"                  (Montgomery 
Scott, STIV)



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