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

[Steven Boozer]

> Klingon Word of the Day for Tuesday, April 28, 2015
> 
> Klingon word:   nIQ
> Part of speech: noun
> Definition:     breakfast

KGT 100:  Klingons tend to eat quickly, taking rather large amounts of food into their mouths and swallowing in big gulps. This is true of food eaten at any of the four daily meals ({nIQ} [breakfast], {megh} [lunch], {'uQ} [dinner], and {ghem} [usually translated as "midnight snack", but really a late-night meal of some substance]), as well as food eaten at any other time.

AFAIK there are no example sentences with {nIQ} - or {megh} and {ghem} for that matter - but the use of {'uQ} should be illustrative:

  SoHvaD 'uQ wej vIqem 
  I'll bring you dinner number three. CK

  reH 'uQvam vIqawtaH 
  I will remember this dinner forever. PK

  'uQ wISoppu'DI' maja'chuq 
  We will talk after dinner. PK

Note the idiom:  {nIQ/megh/'uQ Sop} "eat breakfast/lunch/dinner".  There are apparently no special verbs for these activities as there are in Federation Standard (oops!... I mean English), e.g. "dine" or "sup".

CULTURAL NOTES:

Cold qagh is a common Klingon breakfast food. B'Elanna missed Neelix's special Klingon breakfast buffet, though a bowl of cold gagh was not her idea of how to start a morning. She's not alone; none of the crew seemed especially enthusiastic about it either. (VOY "Fair Trade")

(st.k 6/97):  I also don't think Klingons, not being prone to stand on ceremony where eating is concerned, would object to eating breakfast in something called a {'uQ pa'} "dinner room", a common-type noun-noun construction.


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons