[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: ngogh tun

[Steven Boozer]

Klingon Word of the Day for Sunday, December 16, 2018

Klingon word: ngogh tun
Part of speech: noun
Definition: pillow
Source: qepHom 2010, Email from Marc Okrand, 15 November 2010
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  At the 9th qepHom'a' in Saarbrücken someone asked Okrand about the word for pillow:

(Lieven, 12/07/2010):  Maltz first said that Klingons don't have pillows and he wondered why anyone would want one. But he's seen them (somewhere) and knows what they are. So when pushed - "If you have to call it something, what would you call it?" - he said {ngogh tun}.  A {ngogh} is a block or lump or brick.  [.]  He thought more about it and said maybe another way to say pillow was {QongDaq buq} "bed pouch", but he said that could also apply to a sleeping bag. Perhaps a sleeping bag is {QongDaq buq'a'} and a pillow is {QongDaq buqHom}.

SEE ALSO:

QongDaq  			bed (n)
QongDaq 'echlet tun  		mattress (n) (qepHom 2016)

tun  				be soft (v)
let				be hard (v)

CULTURAL NOTES:

(CK):  Since Klingons are accommodating of foreigners, guest rooms in hotels do come equipped with a bed but that it's most often made of the same material as the floor.

  When Captain K'Vada showed Picard to his quarters aboard his Bird-of-Prey, he slapped the hard bed - more like a sleeping shelf - and sneered, "You will sleep Klingon-style. We do not cushion our bodies by putting down a pad." Nonplussed, Picard slapped the "bed" himself and replied, "Good. I like it that way." (TNG "Unification I")

  When Worf temporarily moved onto the Defiant to get away from the station, he removes the Starfleet-issue mattress from the bed in his quarters, pats the hard bare metal frame and grunts in satisfaction. Jadzia has observed him and asks, "Better?"  Worf replies, "Much."  (DS9 "Bar Association")


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons