[tlhIngan Hol] lawn mower

[Rhona Fenwick]

I'm firmly with be''etlh and ghunchu'wI' on this. The verb {chIp} does not mean "cut hair, trim hair"; it means "cut, trim". "Hair" disambiguates, but there's no reason to consider it to exclude *everything* else. To take some other examples, must the object of {weq} absolutely be a percussion instrument (KGT: "hit (percussion instrument) with palm (v)")? Or does it just need to be anything that I hit in the manner of a percussion instrument? I don't see anything wrong with saying someone {qIvDu'Daj weqtaH} "is drumming on their knees with their palms". Another instance is {ghoS}, defined in TKD as "approach, go away from, proceed, come, follow (a course)". We know from many, many canon examples that the object can, but need not, be a course: it may be a destination, or indeed a point of origin in the right context.


For that reason, I think {magh chIpwI'} is better for "lawn mower". (There's another, completely subjective reason. I grew up watching my uncle cut turf, which involves not trimming the grass, but cutting out entire sections of a mat of grass, with sod still attached. The machine that does that, I would immediately describe as a {magh pe'wI'}, and describing a lawn mower with the same term feels just incorrect.)


QeS 'utlh
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