[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: Hovje'voH (noun)

[Steven Boozer]

It's so simple when you explain it! <g>   I don't remember the music from "Evolution" -- it's one of my least favorite TNG episodes.

Thanks.
  Voragh 

----------------------------------------Original Message----------------------------------------
From: Lieven L. Litaer via tlhIngan-Hol
Sent: Saturday, December 6, 2025 10:52 AM

Am 05.12.2025 um 16:36 schrieb Steven Boozer via tlhIngan-Hol:
> Klingon word: Hovje'voH
> Part of speech: noun
> Definition: evolution (Darwinian)
> Source: qepHom 2020
> _______________________________________________
> 
> Clearly there's a pun, but I don't see it.  It's almost the same backwards - /Hov 'ej voH/ - a kind of palindrome. 
> AFAIK {voH} as a separate word doesn't exist, but {je} and {'ej} mean "and" (for nouns and sentences respectively).

This is a double pun, a pun inside a pun. (Punception?)

Read backwards, {Hovje'voH} indeed is {Hov} + {'ejvoH}, literally "star" 
+ "stripe" -- in Klingon.

The word {'ejvoH} backwards is {Hov je}, this pun is based on the phrase "stars and stripes".

The link to "evolution" is the title of the TNG episode "Evolution", in which the com speakers of the Enterprise play the music "Stars and Stripes Forever".