tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Oct 15 07:27:46 2007
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Re: Klingon WOTD: botjan (noun)
>This is the Klingon Word Of The Day for Sunday, October 14, 2007.
>
>Klingon word: botjan
>Part of Speech: noun
>Definition: shields (force field on a ship)
>
>Additional Notes:
>KGT p. 67: As protection against these various weapons, a warrior often
>carried a shield, or {yoD}, basically a large plate of metal. The verb
>form of "shield" is also {yoD}, and to "shield oneself" is
>{yoD'egh}. (Although the federation Standard word "shields" refers to
>both the old hand-held protective armor and the force field protecting a
>vessel--the newer meaning clearly based on the older--in Klingon, there is
>no connection between the two. The force field on a ship is called
>{botjan}. To shield a ship, one must "activate the shields," or {botjan chu'}.)
"The Klingon word {botjan} refers to shields or protective force-fields on
a ship. The hand-held shield associated with traditional hand-to-hand
combat is called {yoD}." (Okrand in KCD)
Used in canon:
botjan yIchu'
Raise shields! KCD
Note that one activates {chu'} the {botjan}. As the noun is composed of
{bot} "prevent, block" + {jan} "device", {botjan} probably refers to the
shield generator, i.e. the device that creates or projects the energy
field. (Compare this to the So'wI'} "cloaking device".) The actual
energy field itself seems to be the {HoSchem} "energy field" or {Surchem}
"force field".
Cf. also {begh} "deflectors", {begh DaH} "deflector array" and {begh
botjan} "deflector shield(s)".
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons