tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Dec 21 07:56:44 2007
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Re: Klingon WOTD: DuDwI' (noun)
> >> This is the Klingon Word Of The Day for Thursday, December 20, 2007.
> >>
> >> Klingon word: DuDwI'
> >> Part of Speech: noun
> >> Definition: stirring stick
> >>
> >> Additional Notes:
> >> KGT p. 97. The stick used for stirring in a {'un} ("pot") is usually
> >> called a {DuDwI'} ("mixer"), though sometimes the term {'un naQ} ("pot
> >> cane") is heard. If the end of the {DuDwI'} is flattened out, paddlelike,
> >> the device may also be called a {ngawDeq}.
Voragh:
> > Additional additional notes:
> >
> > HQ 10.2:11. There is a joke, Maltz recalled, about someone trying
> > to lick some food off of a stirring stick while wearing shoes. Maltz
> > laughed, but didn't tell the joke.
> >
> > Any ideas what Maltz found so amusing?
At 06:48 AM Friday 12/21/2007, Doq wrote:
>Likely, it has something to do with using the third toe, since {roS}
>means both "use the third toe" and "lick", and if you do it badly, you
>get paralyzed.
At 08:46 AM Friday 12/21/2007, QeS 'utlh wrote:
>Obviously the joke has to do with the homophony of {roS} "to lick" and
>{roS} "to use the third toe".
Sulughba' tlhIH.
If I had searched my notes more carefully, I would have found this comment
by Okrand (HolQeD 10.2:10-11):
{roS} "use the third toe" is phonetically identical to {roS} "lick"
as well as the {roS} found in {roSHa'moH} "paralyze". The verb for
"paralyze" consists of three elements: the verb {roS} (of unclear
meaning), {-Ha'} "undo", {-moH} "cause". Thus it may be literally
translated as "cause to no longer {roS}" or "cause to un-{roS}" or
the like. A verb {roS} having anything to do with general mobility
does not occur except in {roSHa'moH}. If the toe verb {roS} is the
same verb, "paralyze" means "cause to not use the third toe". Perhaps
mobility of the third toe was associated somehow with mobility in
general. Indeed, there is an idiomatic expression {pe'vIl roS}
"he/she uses his/her third toe forcefully" which conveys the idea
that he or she is particularly agile or nimble or spry. On the
other hand, maybe the motions of the Klingon third toe look like a
tongue licking.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons