[Tlhingan-hol] New expression: Klingon for "dim sum" revealed

[David Holt]

I know more about Japanese than Chinese, but I know a little about dim sum (dim sam in Cantonese). My understanding of the character here pronounced "dim" in Cantonese is that as a verb it means "to hint at" or "to touch on", but not "to physically touch".  As a noun it might translate well to "a spot (of)", or "a touch (of)", or "a point (of)". The full "dim sam" might mean "a little bit of heart" or "a heart that is only as big as a spot" and may refer to the small size of the dishes or the supposedly lightness of the meal. It may actually be a sort of pun. The character for heart is written with one long curved line and three "dots". It might be comparing the long line of the character to a meal and "dim sam" to the three dots of the character.

In any case, I'm led to believe that our informant is wrong and that it is one word meaning "mini-heart". We'll get the details at the qep'a' if no one gets confirmation before then.

Jeremy

From: Felix Malmenbeck

while the original meaning of "dim sum" is not exactly known, it's believed to mean either "touch the heart" or "spotted heart".

...

Known vocabulary suggests one possible interpretation would be "it touches the heart with the second toe", which could correspond to the "touch the heart" translation.

Or it could mean "heart runt", or "heart bone".

Or it could be a misspelling of <tIq Hot>.

...or, most tantalizingly, it could be a whole new word!

I guess somebody will just have to ask Marc the next time they have the opportunity, and report back :)

Best wishes,

loghaD
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