[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: nItlh naQ

[Rohan Fenwick - QeS 'utlh]

ghItlhpu' quljIb, jatlh:
> I wouldn't use {ghItlh}, as the original meaning is "to carve/inscribe"
> such as with Ogham or Norse runes.
    
jang De'vID, jatlh:
> But isn't that exactly what {ghItlh} is for?

    jang je quljIb, jatlh:
> Right.  But here we're talking about painting; applying pigment to a
> (presumably) flat surface.  The Book of Kells was painted, not carved.

The *original* meaning of {ghItlh} may have been "to carve, to inscribe",
but it's come to have a much wider sense of "write, inscribe" that's not
restricted to carving of marks on a hard surface. I quote from KGT:

"The word {ghItlhwI'} (literally, "engraver") is also used for any writing
implement as well as for any person who writes. Indeed, the verb {ghItlh}
is most commonly translated as "write", but it always refers to the act of
writing - that is, of making marks on some surface - not to the act of
composition." (KGT pp. 79-80)

So {ghItlh} can describe the inscribing of the Book of Kells just fine.

QeS 'utlh