butlh

dirt under fingernails

Part of speech

noun

Pronunciation

but͡ɬ

Sound out butlh letter by letter:

• bbb as in 'bay'
• uuu as in 'boot'
• tlht͡ɬt released into a breathy lateral, no English equivalent

• In Federation Standard, an approximate equivalent is gall. Indeed, Worf said to Kevin Uxbridge, "Your attempt to hold the away team at bay with a nonfunctioning weapon was an act of unmitigated gall... I admire gall." Had Worf said that Uxbridge's action was "an act of unmitigated dirt under the fingernails," he would have been misunderstood, at the very least. The Klingon way to say, "you lack gall" is "HuH DaHutlh." This is literally "You lack bile," and a Klingon would probably only understand it biologically. [TKW p.142]

• lam — dirt

TKD · TKW p.142; KLINW

Originally sourced from klingonska.org and enhanced by lingoXpress.