tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Sep 05 08:27:30 2007

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Re: Klingon WOTD: luj (verb)

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



>This is the Klingon Word Of The Day for Wednesday, September 5, 2007.
>
>Klingon word:   luj
>Part of Speech: verb
>Definition:     fail, lose (not win)
>
>Additional Notes:
>Also in "Okrand's Notes" in HolQeD 2:4 p. 18.  " 'To win' a competition is 
>to {Qap}.  (If it's a decisive or particularly gratifying victory, they'd 
>say {Qapchu'}, even though that's a bit redundant.)  In TKD, {Qap} is 
>translated as 'succeed, work, function.'  To a Klingon, to win is to 
>function perfectly.  The opposite notion, 'lose,' is commonly {luj}, also 
>meaning 'fail.' "
>
>KGT adds the meaning "lose (not win)."

   The slang expression is used in such constructions as {bIvonlu'pu'}
   ("You have failed completely"; literally, "You have been trapped").
   In standard Klingon, the same idea may be expressed by saying {lujbej}
   ("certainly fail"), {lujchu'} ("fail perfectly"), or {lujqu'} ("really
   fail"), all based on {luj} ("fail"). Note that {luj} is also used to
   mean lose (as in "lose at a game"). To say "I lose" is {jIluj}; to
   say "I lose in a big way" is {jIlujqu'} or {jIlujchu'}.  (KGT 165-66)

Used in canon:

   lujpu' jIH
   I have failed. TKD

   lujpu' jIH'e'
   I, and only I, have failed. TKD

   bIlujlaHbe'chugh bIQaplaHbe'
   If you cannot fail, you cannot succeed. TKW
   ("If you cannot lose, you cannot win"; i.e. Nothing ventured, nothing 
gained).

   wo' choqmeH may' DoHlu'chugh lujbe'lu'
   "ending a battle to save an empire is no defeat." TKW

Used in Trek:

   *lujpu' jiH'e Alexandrijn*
   "I have failed, Alexander." (Worf, TNG "Night Terrors")

N.B. don't confuse with {chIl} "lose, misplace".




--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons






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