voragh and De'vID, thank you for taking the time to reply; reading your comments, I understood things I completely ignored before. voragh:
What mayqel is looking for is the Klingon equivalent of *chutzpah*. Of the available options the expression {butlh ghajbogh nuv'e' yIHo'} “Admire the person with dirt under his fingernails” seems to me the closest: (TKW 142): The Klingon word {butlh} (“dirt under fingernails”) can be taken literally, but in this expression it means something like “effrontery, impudence, brazenness."
Since I didn't know the exact meaning of the english words “effrontery, impudence, brazenness", I looked them up, and I was happy to realize that seemingly/apparently they *do* express the meaning of the word "nerve" I'm looking for. De'vID:
I also thought of {qajunpaQ} and think it's exactly the word mayqel is looking for. We have the example of the original usage on screen, from the DS9 episode "Blood Oath". (The word was clearly invented by someone other than Dr. Okrand, then backfitted into Klingon by him in KGT.) DAX: The Korvat colony. First day of negotiations. I walked out on you right in the middle of that long-winded speech of yours. You should have seen the look on your face. *Nobody ever had the kajunpak't to show their back to the great Kang before Curzon did.*
Reading this use of {qajunpaQ} I think that perhaps it could be used too, for expressing the desired meaning of "nerve". ..So, while I started from a situation where I had no Ca'Non klingon word for "nerve", now I seemingly/apparently have two to play with! But there's a slight problem: While the greek/english meaning of "nerve" is a negative one (i.e "nerve" isn't a desired thing for someone to exhibit in his actions), it seems that in the klingon way of thinking it *is* something actually admired. So, I come across a situation described by the irritating (for me) argument of "what a klingon would actually do/say/think". Do I use the {butlh}/{qajunpaQ} in order to express the action of a human acting for humans, in a text which is addressed to humans who don't give a crap for the cultural intricacies of klingons? Or do I jump on the "what a klingon would/wouldn't do" bandwagon? Because in the first case, I *can* use the {butlh}/{qajunpaQ} and humans will understand that it's something undesirable in the behavior of the subject.. But on the second case, someone using in-game thinking could say "And why do you say it like it's a bad thing? {butlh}/{qajunpaQ} is a desirable trait to have". I don't know.. I feel like a dog who has his food placed just an inch away from his rope limit.. I have what I want, and I can't decide whether I can use it or not. ~ Dana'an