Re: Keywords (was: Re: Browsing at Borders Public Library)

Ed Heil <edheil@...> wrote:

> Words which are fairly frequently used, but which are not
> translatable easily with a single word -- that have to be explained,
> and that convey a concept that is important to the culture.
I think I'm getting it then. Drasel=E9q has a very important
concept of 'opening'.

_fadhden_:
        'to open, to open oneself, to trust, to receive,
         to allow, to confess, to clean one's soul'

From the Enlightenment (a religious revelation), the soul was
viewed as a room with multiple doors and windows, that one has
to open, lest the air inside becomes foul. The last 2 meanings
are therefore more recent; the others existed already prior to
the Enlightenment.

Another word of this kind could be _du`th_:

        'year, cycle, harvesting cycle, round, turn, period,
         generation, age of the world, the life of a people'

The root originally means 'round, circular, coming back to
the beginning'. The word, as you see, is singularly ambiguous.

A last one, _soimol_:

        'gray, whitish, indistinguishable, confused; mist, fog,=20
         low clouds in the sea; far and obscure space ahead;
         difficult to sort out, requiring patience and care'

It's a word with a lot of significance for a seafaring people!


--Pablo Flores
  http://draseleq.conlang.org/pablo-david/