Thanks for the references, Lieven. Perhaps {tarngeb} is a reference to radiation poisoning? "Ingestion of high concentrations of uranium, however, can cause severe health effects, such as cancer of the bone or liver. Inhaling large concentrations of uranium can cause lung cancer from the exposure to alpha particles. Uranium is also a toxic chemical, meaning that ingestion of uranium can cause kidney damage from its chemical properties much sooner than its radioactive properties would cause cancers of the bone or liver." < https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/emergencies/isotopes/uranium.htm > Under Stalin, the Kolyma mines of the Magadan region of Eastern Siberia were infamous. In addition to the usual dangers of the GuLAG, the Soviets began mining uranium in large amounts there for the Soviet atom bomb project. Prisoners working inside the mines with *very* primitive equipment (and breathing the dust without protective clothing) soon started dying of radiation poisoning. This wasn't a problem for the government as there were always new prisoners to replace the dead ones. (For an overview, see Zhores A. Medvedev's article "Stalin and the Atomic Gulag" at https://www.spokesmanbooks.com/Spokesman/PDF/medvedev69.pdf ) Is tungsten also known to be poisonous? -- Voragh -----------------------------------Original Message----------------------------------- From: Lieven L. Litaer Am 03.02.2021 um 16:40 schrieb Steven Boozer:

Voragh, Ca'Non Master of the Klingons Please contribute relevant vocabulary from the last year or two. I’ve fallen behind in updating my files and adding cross-references for related words.

From qepHom 2020: This seems to be made up of tar "poison" and ngeb "be fake," but Maltz had no idea why this element would be called "fake poison," so maybe it's just a coincidence. (http://klingon.wiki/Word/Tarngeb) See also: {targho'nI'} "tungsten": Here's another element that seems to have something to do with poison (tar), though Maltz didn't know what gho'nI' might mean. He said he'd never noticed a connection between poison and some elements before and doesn't know what to make of it. Did Klingons at some point use uranium and/or tungsten to make poison? (http://klingon.wiki/Word/Targho-nI-) Find a list of Elements on this page: http://klingon.wiki/En/Chemistry

D'oh!! I should have remembered pitchblende, as {tar} should have suggested "pitch". Linguistic puns are usually the way to go. Have you figured out the pun behind {targhonI'} "tungsten" {tar + gho + nI'} ? Searching "tungsten + poison/toxic" brings up mixed results: "Because tungsten is a rare metal and its compounds are generally inert, the effects of tungsten on the environment are limited. [....] It was at first believed to be relatively inert and an only slightly toxic metal, but beginning in the year 2000, the risk presented by tungsten alloys, its dusts and particulates to induce cancer and several other adverse effects in animals as well as humans has been highlighted from in vitro and in vivo experiments." < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten > ... so this approach is probably not productive. -- Voragh -----------------------------------Original Message----------------------------------- From: tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol-bounces@lists.kli.org> On Behalf Of Alan Anderson Tar is a substance that, when distilled, leaves a concentrated residue called pitch. The German word “blenden” means “deceptive”, giving a name to the mineral “Blende” or “deceptive galena” (it looks like it has lead in it, but it doesn’t). Another name for Blende is sphalerite. Greek “sphaleros” also means “deceptive”. Pitchblende is uranium ore. -- ghunchu'wI'

I’m teased by the “long ‘o’” suggested by {gho-nI’}, wondering if that could be a sound, or if there were some symbolic issues relating to an oval (a long circle). The special stuff about Tungsten is that it’s about as heavy as gold (and so is sometimes used in jewelry with gold coating to fake being pure gold) and it has the highest melting and vaporizing temperature of any metal. It was used in the filaments of incandescent lightbulbs, and is used for ballast in race cars and other settings where lead just isn’t dense enough to pack enough weight into a small volume. It apparently works great for armor piercing ammunition. So what does that have to do with long ohs or long circles? And what does it have to do with tar, rat, or poison? I’m definitely not getting any traction here, though the clues are too obvious, even as their references are mysterious. The other name for it is Wolfram, hence the chemical symbol “W”, which is also the name of a scientific search engine. If you use the app “WolframAlpha” on an iPhone to look up “tungsten”, it pulls up an image of a spiraling filament with its ends hooked form a circle. No traction. charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.

On Feb 3, 2021, at 12:26 PM, Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu> wrote:

D'oh!! I should have remembered pitchblende, as {tar} should have suggested "pitch". Linguistic puns are usually the way to go.

Have you figured out the pun behind {targhonI'} "tungsten" {tar + gho + nI'} ? Searching "tungsten + poison/toxic" brings up mixed results:

"Because tungsten is a rare metal and its compounds are generally inert, the effects of tungsten on the environment are limited. [....] It was at first believed to be relatively inert and an only slightly toxic metal, but beginning in the year 2000, the risk presented by tungsten alloys, its dusts and particulates to induce cancer and several other adverse effects in animals as well as humans has been highlighted from in vitro and in vivo experiments." < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten >

... so this approach is probably not productive.

-- Voragh

-----------------------------------Original Message----------------------------------- From: tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol-bounces@lists.kli.org> On Behalf Of Alan Anderson

Tar is a substance that, when distilled, leaves a concentrated residue called pitch.

The German word “blenden” means “deceptive”, giving a name to the mineral “Blende” or “deceptive galena” (it looks like it has lead in it, but it doesn’t). Another name for Blende is sphalerite. Greek “sphaleros” also means “deceptive”.

Pitchblende is uranium ore.

-- ghunchu'wI' _______________________________________________ tlhIngan-Hol mailing list tlhIngan-Hol@lists.kli.org http://lists.kli.org/listinfo.cgi/tlhingan-hol-kli.org