[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: tlhIm

[Steven Boozer]

> Klingon Word of the Day for Friday, October 07, 2016
> 
> Klingon word: tlhIm
> Part of speech: noun
> Definition: carpet, rug, blanket, fabric wall hanging
> Source: Marc Okrand, Email 01/09/2012

  rav vel tlhIm 
  the carpet covers the floor (email, 1/09/2012)

  rav velmeH tlhIm lo' 
  lay a carpet (email, 1/09/2012)


(MO email to Lieven, 1/09/2012):  A carpet or a rug is {tlhIm}.  When you lay a carpet, you don't use the verb {mutlh}; the appropriate verb is {vel} ("cover, coat, mask").  One can say {rav vel tlhIm} ("the carpet covers the floor"). To say "lay a carpet," one says "use a carpet to cover the floor," or {rav velmeH tlhIm lo'}.  The person who lays the carpet is a {velwI'} (literally "coverer, coater, masker").  You might think that the {velwI'} is the carpet itself.  That would make sense, but it doesn't work that way.  Maltz commented that Klingon rugs are primarily decorative.  The idea of a fabric floor covering being thick or soft was just bizarre to him.  If you did say {tlhIm mutlh} ("he/she assembled a carpet"), that would mean there were pieces of fabric (or squares of carpet?) that got put together (sewn together?) to make a carpet or rug.  {tlhIm} is commonly used for a fabric wall hanging (that might, for example, have a picture of the Klingon emblem on it).  If a piece of cloth is displayed at the end of a pole, it is considered a {joqwI'} ("flag"); a {tlhIm} covers some sort of surface. 
Finally, {tlhIm} can also mean "blanket." Maltz said that Klingons generally don't use blankets (he certainly doesn't), but he's seen them and, if you have to call them something, {tlhIm} is it." 

(st.k 3/23/1998):  Thus {DIrmey} "skins" and {veDDIrmey} "pelts" are not (or, perhaps better, are no longer) body parts, but rather are materials from which things (clothing or blankets, for example) may be made.

SEE ALSO:
no' DIr 		ancestor hanging (n)
joqwI' 		flag, banner (n)

HuS 			hang (v)
mutlh  		construct, assemble, put together (v)
jom 			install (a device), equip (v)


--
Voragh
tlhIngan ghantoH pIn'a'
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons