[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: Qu'vatlh

[Steven Boozer]

Voragh:
>> AFAIK never used in canon.  Does it - or any other curse
>> for that matter - appear in the {paq'batlh}?

Felix:
> petaQ is used a fair bit, as one might expect.

Thanks for checking this.
 
> It contains this footnote (which I believe was written by Schönefeld,
> not Okrand):
>
> P'takh (petaQ) is a Klingon insult, meaning something like "weirdo,"
> deriving from the verb "to be weird" (taQ), with and you (plural)
> imperative prefix (pe-). Alternative romanizations include pahtak,
> p'tak, patahk, and pahtk.

Sustel reported that footnote (p. 70f.?) back in June, to which ghunchu'wI' replied:

  ... don't put much stock in the authority of the footnotes.
  (ghunchu'wI', 6/25/2012)

The supposed etymology is fairly obvious and, in fact, Kevin A. Geiselman posted the same analysis sometime in the 1990's:

  To call someone a {petaQ} would be calling him some sort of
  weirdo or pervert.

I included Kevin's comment in my "Voragh's Notes on Klingon Cursing", which can still be found on the net.  Schönefeld may have seen a copy of this document.

> Interestingly, the text contains the line <nItlhejbogh petaQmey tInuD>
> ("Look att hese p'takhs at your side"), shouted by Molor at Kahless;
> not sure if the <-mey> was intentional to add insult to, well, insult.
> [It also contains the phrase <nuqDaq ghaH petaQ'e'> ("Where is the
> p'takh [...]"), with <ghaH> rather than <'oH>.]
> 
> Molor also tell Kahless <petaQ'a' SoH>, which is translated as "You
> dirty p'takh,". So, apparently <petaQ'a'> is a thing.

It's not surprising that the pronouns is {ghaH} as the epithet refers to a person.  I'd imagine the same is true for the epithet {Ha'DIbaH}:  ?{nuqDaq ghaH romuluS Ha'DIbaHvetlh'e'}.  If you wanted to add even more insult to insult, you could say {nuqDaq 'oH petaQ'e'} using the pronoun used with actual animals.  


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons