[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: ghop

[Steven Boozer]

Klingon Word of the Day for Monday, May 29, 2023

Klingon word: ghop
Part of speech: noun
Definition: hand
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ghopDu'lIj yIlo' 
Use your hands!  (CK)
[sic! It should be {ghopDu'lIj tIlo'} (SuStel)] 

jagh lucharghlu'ta'bogh HuH ghopDu'lIj lungaSjaj 
May the bile of the vanquished (enemy) fill your hands! (PK)

ghopDu'wIjDaq yInmeyraj vIlaj 
I accept your lives into my hands. (KGT)

ghop luQan tajHommey.  pe'laH je.  
[the blades] providing both a hand guard and another set of cutting edges. (SP2)

wejlogh choponlaHbe'chugh vaj gho[p]vam vItap 'ej DaH naDev qaHoH 
Give me three good reasons not to squeeze this hand tight and kill you w[h]ere you stand! (PB)

'urwI' HoHmeH ghopDu'Daj neH lo'meH qeylIS 'etlhDaj chagh 
And Kahless dropped his sword to kill the traitor with bare hands (PB)

LANGUAGE NOTES:
(HQ 10.2:7):  "A hand has {vagh nItlhDu'} (five fingers), not {loS nItlhDu'} (four fingers) and a thumb. There is a specific word referring to each of the five fingers, and these words are nouns derived from verbs by means of the suffix {-wI'} (thing which does); there are two pairs for thumb.

(Qov, reporting on qep'a' 2015, 8/05/2015):  I asked [Okrand] about how we would describe someone’s right hand.  I said I would say {nIHwIj ghop} "the hand of my right side" and he said "I would do that too," making a dissatisfied face about the alternative {nIH ghopwIj} "my hand of the right side".  I asked "or are {nIH} and {poS} like {tlhop} and {‘em}, taking the pronoun rather than the possessive suffix?" but he felt that {nIHwIj} was correct.

(KGT 106-7):  By the same token, literally translating a sentence such as "The restaurant changed hands" into Klingon, presumably as {ghopDu' choHpu' Qe'} ("The restaurant has altered hands") or perhaps {ghopDu' tampu' Qe'} ("The restaurant has exchanged hands"), does not tell the Klingon that the restaurant is now under new ownership, which is what the Federation Standard phrase really means.

CULTURAL NOTES:
  "Eating is done with hands only. There is no Klingon fork or spoon." (KGT 99)

“By the hand of Kahless!” is an oath in John Ford’s novel "The Final Reflection", which one of the writers has apparently read as Gen. Martok was fond of the phrase:  e.g. “By the hand of Kahless!” (said in frustration after Gowron relieved him of overall command in the Dominion War, DS9 “When It Rains…”);  “By the hand of Kahless, get us out of here!” and “By Kahless's hand, how many?” (both from DS9 “Once More Unto the Breach”).  

PUN:  1) "grope"?;  2) {pogh} "glove" backwards

--
Voragh, Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
    Please contribute relevant vocabulary from recent qep’a’mey 
    or qepHommey. I’ve fallen woefully behind in updating my files.