tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Mar 14 06:52:40 2007

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Re: Klingon WOTD: ghangwI' (noun)

Doq ([email protected]) 

Perhaps Klingons believe that if your vision merely extends to the  
horizon, you lack ambition. Your vision ends prematurely.

Doq

On Mar 13, 2007, at 5:09 PM, McArdle wrote:

> Steven Boozer <[email protected]> wrote:
>> lay'tel SIvten:
>>>>> Is this related to {ghang}?
>>>>>
>>>>> NWL20030704; HQ v12n2p8; v; end prematurely (an event, voyage,  
>>>>> battle, play,
>>>>> opera, story, song, etc.) [The subject of this verb is the  
>>>>> person causing an
>>>>> event to prematurely end. The direct object is the event that  
>>>>> is ended.]
>>>>
>>>> Voragh:
>>>> I don't think so. {ghangwI'} (HQ 11.2) was revealed prior to  
>>>> {ghang} (HQ
>>>> 12.2). It's generally accepted that {ghang} derives from the  
>>>> 1970's US
>>>> television series "The Gong Show", many of whose dreadful  
>>>> amateur acts were
>>>> ended prematurely when one of the celebrity judges struck a huge  
>>>> gong. I
>>>> can't think of any relationship between the two, even as a pun.
>>>
>>> mIq'ey:
>>> This is probably far-fetched, but could M.O. have been playing  
>>> with the
>>> astronomical meaning of the word "terminator" (= "the boundary  
>>> between the
>>> part of a moon or planet that is illuminated and the part that is  
>>> dark" -
>>> Encarta)? Not that "terminator" and "horizon"are remotely  
>>> synonymous, but
>>> when the sun is on the horizon and you ride off into the sunset,  
>>> you are
>>> in fact heading toward the terminator.
>>
>> And the transition is immediate? Note the meaning of {ghang} "end  
>> PREMATURELY"
>
>   I didn't say anything about a "transition", merely about a  
> possible pun relating the English word "terminator" and the  
> horizon.  You said you couldn't think of "any relationship, even as  
> a pun", and this is one that occurred to me.  I don't claim  
> anything more for it than that it's a "far-fetched excogitation."
>
>   Nevertheless, I do think that there's a sense of prematurity to  
> the English verb "terminate".  Think of the phrase "terminated with  
> extreme prejudice", or Schwarzenegger as "The Terminator".  A death  
> by such agency is almost by definition "premature".  Since what's  
> in play here is a pun and not an analogy, I don't think it's very  
> important that this sense isn't necessarily carried over when  
> "terminator" is used astronomically (although the terminator on an  
> airless body such as the Moon actually is abrupt).
>
>>>
>>> The fact that {ghangwI'} was revealed before {ghang} doesn't  
>>> necessarily
>>> mean it existed first.
>>
>> I meant that the usual way {-wI'} nouns arise - either  
>> historically or in
>> "real life" (i.e. from Okrand) - is that the verb "X" exists  
>> first, then a
>> need arises for a nomen agentis ("one who does X, thing which does  
>> X").
>>
>
>   I was responding to your statement that you doubted a connection  
> between {ghangwI'} and {ghang} (meaning "to end prematurely")  
> because the former was revealed before the latter.  We don't know  
> in what order they were actually invented.
>
>> There are exceptions: e.g. {chamwI'} "technician" - no known verb ? 
>> {cham}
>> but a noun {cham} "technology}; {De'wI'} "computer" - no known  
>> verb ?{De'},
>> but a noun {De'} "information, data", etc. Which is not to say  
>> that there
>> are no verbs ?{cham} or ?{De'}, just that they aren't listed in  
>> the limited
>> vocabulary available to us or they haven't survived into the 23rd/ 
>> 24th century.
>>
>> Of course, Okrand could have had a verb ?{ghang} having something  
>> to do
>> with horizons
>
>   ... or with termination ...
>
>> in his notes for quite some time. I imagine he thought up
>> new words and puns all the time and probably wrote some of them  
>> down for
>> future reference.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Voragh
>> Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
>
>   qavan
>
>   mIq'ey
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Don't pick lemons.
> See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos.
>
>

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