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

[ghunchu'wI' 'utlh]

On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 11:51 AM, David Trimboli <david at trimboli.name> wrote:
>> I use {chIp}, without hesitation or ironic intent, to describe mowing the
>> lawn.
>
> Have you any justification for this?

It's an obvious analogy that I would expect anyone familiar with both
Klingon language and grassy lawns to understand. That nobody on the
mailing list ever questioned the meaning when I used it that way tells
me that my expectation is justified. I'd rather not pursue the other
possibilities: nobody read the notes where I did it, or those who
failed to accept the usage didn't care enough to comment.

It might not even be stretching the meaning at all. {chIp} doesn't
actually *include* the hair idea. That's given in parentheses as an
example of the kind of object it can have, not as the only one
possible. I'd accept that {chIp} alone does *imply* hair, based on the
{ghuS} example, but I wouldn't expect any verb to have its object
restricted to a specific noun.

> Do you also "mow" your hair?

Not my own, but I do occasionally refer to crew cuts that way. The
first barber I was old enough to remember visiting regularly used to
joke about having a special power trimmer he would bring out in order
to mow one particular customer's beard. Again, the analogy is obvious.

-- ghunchu'wI'