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