[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: tlhorgh

[Steven Boozer]

> Klingon word:   tlhorgh
> Part of speech: verb
> Definition:     be pungent (referring to food)
 
KGT 85:  To the Klingon palate, the best food tastes {tlhorgh} ("pungent", though some non-Klingons may prefer to translate the word as "rank" or "gamey"). The opposite of {tlhorgh} is {tlhorghHa'}, conventionally translated as "bland" but literally meaning "unpungent", the implication being that the natural punch has somehow been taken out of the food as a result of how it was prepared. The same ideas are often expressed idiomatically. When talking about the quality of a dish, one may say {jej pach} ("The claw is sharp"; that is, the food is pungent) or {jejHa' pach} ("The claw is dull"; in other words, the food is bland, where {jejHa'} ["dull"] really means something like "de-sharpened").

KGT 42:  the normal way to describe bland food is to call it {tlhorghHa'} ("not pungent"). In the past, the word {jot} was used in this sense, though now its meaning has changed to "be calm". An upper-class diner will, from time to time, still describe food as {jot}. [...] Among the lower classes-except for those working as servants for the higher classes ... words like {jot} and {ru'} are used only in their modern senses.

KGT 85-86:  The usual Federation Standard translations of the primary tastes (pungent, sour, salty) are a little deceptive. From the Klingon point of view, it is not accurate to say that a particular food is sour; rather, it tastes and smells sour. That is, sourness is not an intrinsic quality of the food; it is a perception, the effect the food has upon the senses of smell and taste, the Klingon sense of smell being particularly highly developed. Translations such as "sour-inducing" ({Soj wIb}, "sour-inducing food"; {na' Soj}, "The food induces saltiness") would perhaps be closer to the feeling of the Klingon, but they are a bit clumsy.


Related verbs:

tlhorghHa'  	be bland (referring to food)
non 			be rotten
ngIm 		be putrid
rogh 		ferment
ragh 		decay


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons