On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 11:11 AM, SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name> wrote:

I'd love to hear Okrand report that Maltz is totally baffled by the human obsession with turning body parts into profanity, and that Klingons don't have a category of profanity that comes from body parts. Bonus points if he says they do have a category that turns words for medical instruments into profanity. :D

​I would definitely be interested to hear more about the etymologies (real or folk) of Klingon curses. What makes a particular word a curse or invective, rather than just an insult? nuch isn't an invective, toDSaH is, but if I call a Klingon warrior either one of those words I'm liable to get my teeth knocked out. So what makes one an invective and the other just a word? Also, how do Klingons deal with curse words like yIntagh and (sort of a curse word) vum (n), that are identical to mundane, non-profane words? (vumwI' is either "worker" or "my bastard/scumbag".) I don't think I want to use up my opportunity to request a word by asking about profanity, but it'd be interesting to hear about it sometime.

Well, I do want to request one profanity thing. Is there some sort of phrase equivalent to "Damn/To hell with/Screw/Fuck ______!", where the blank can be filled with whatever needs to be disregarded, rejected, condemned, or otherwise the focus of anger? Specifically, something short and derogatory with the strength of invective, that's a familiar, set formula rather than something you make up on the spot.