Words to Your Mother: Quine

In computer programming, a quine is a metaprogram that outputs its entire source code. Wikipedia gives several examples of this, including the following JavaScript example:

function a() {
 alert (a + "\na();");
}

a();

Quine is also occasionally used to mean "to deny resolutely the existence or importance of something real or significant".

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, quine, programming, metaprogramming

Words to Your Mother: Momento mori

After having my self-righteousness self-deflated again, I need to throw out a Latin phrase to recoup:

"Momento mori" is a cheery Latin phrase that means "remember that you are mortal" or "remember you will die". Mentos, on the other hand, are fresh and full of life.

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Words to Your Mother: Axed

If someone has "axed" you, then they have struck you with a bladed tool, or perhaps terminated your job. However, as with my previous rant on the word flustrated, I am surprised to find that another meaning has some legitimacy.

Yes, The Free Dictionary lists one meaning of "ax" as "variant of ask". Read on:

ax has become stigmatized as substandard—a fate that has befallen other words, like ain't, that were once perfectly acceptable in literate circles.

Not convinced?

This should not be surprising since ax is a very old word in English, having been used in England for over 1,000 years. In Old English we find both scian and csian, and in Middle English both asken and axen. Moreover, the forms with cs or x had no stigma associated with them.

Still doesn't do it for you?

Chaucer used asken and axen interchangeably, as in the lines "I wol aske, if it hir will be/To be my wyf" and "Men axed hym, what sholde bifalle," both from The Canterbury Tales.

Unless you're from Iowa, I think you'd be hard-pressed to argue with Chaucer.

Besides, in a thousand years we'll all be saying it that way, so I guess we might as well get used to it again.

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Now *here's* a web site I can get behind

From the makers of mental_floss:

www.reduceidiocy.org

(Sadly, I almost made two typos in this post.  At least I caught them before spell check did.)

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From pirates to prospectors

If Talk Like a Pirate Day didn't suit your fancy, check out the mental_floss blog for instructions on "How to Swear Like an Old Prospector".

technorati tags:vocabulary, pirates, prospector, swearing

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Words to Your Mother Index (9/28/06)

Believe it or not, it's been seventy-five words and phrases covered and still going strong (and Foster's didn't even count), with no sign of running out anytime soon. Here's out story so far. As usual, some of the more distinctively non-English words have notes as to the language they are from and used in, and words written in non-Latin character sets are alphabetized by approximate English spellings.

abugida
achtung (German)
ἀγάπη (agape) (Koine Greek)
amiga (Spanish)
apothecary
apotheosis
avast
baleen
bodhisattva
brae (Scottish)
bwana (Swahili)
beaucoup
caduceus
certitude
chào (Vietnamese)
chiropodist
churlish
colporteur
contemn
decimation
devolve
dobar dan (добар дан) (Serbo-Croatian)
懂嗎 (懂吗/dong ma) (Mandarin Chinese)
draconian
ebay (Pig Latin)
embarazada (Spanish)
estuary
flustrated
fulsome
גנבֿ (ganef) (Yiddish)
hakuna matata (Swahili)
harangue
icthys
impeachment
impress
inter arma enim silent leges (Latin)
jejune
jiffy
ជំរាបសួរ (joom reeup sooa) (Cambodian/Khmer)
junk
khara (Sanskrit)
klaatu barada nikto (fictional language)
languorous
louche
maximal
miter
n'est-ce pas (French)
noblesse oblige (French)
nuqneH (Klingon)
panacea
pangram
perestroika
phantasmagoria
philology
picayune
postlude
quail
qu'est-ce que c'est? (French)
Rashomon effect
schadenfreude
screed
סלה (selah) (Hebrew)
somnambulist
sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble (French)
souma yergon (Wolof [?])
spick and span
sushi
tchotchke (Yiddish)
teratonym (not a real word)
uff da (Norwegian)
uhuru (Swahili)
verisimilitude
virtu
whom
zimbra (not a real word)

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Words to Your Mother: גנבֿ (ganef)

גנבֿ (ganef, gonef, gonif, or goniff) is Yiddish for "thief", "scoundrel", or "rascal".  However, the word may be used as a general term of abuse.  It is based on a Hebrew word meaning "to steal".

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*^#@ing euphemisms

Interesting article at the mental_floss blog about euphemisms. Go on, read it already. I said go! What are you still doing here? Get on with it!

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Words to Your Mother: Dobar dan (добар дан)

"Dobar dan" (pronounced "dough-bar Dan") is a greeting in Serbo-Croatian.  Well...  Actually let's get back to "dobar dan" in a minute.

Serbo-Croatian is not technically a language.  It is rather a family of languages that includes Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian.  These languages are considered to be ausbauspraches, which in practice means that they are basically different dialects of the same language.  While there is some measure of debate on this, those who have lived in the area tell me that the main difference between the two titular languages—Serbian and Croatian—is that Serbian uses the Cyrillic alphabet (AKA the Russian alphabet), whereas Croatian uses the Latin alphabet (AKA the Roman or English alphabet, although it has been slightly expanded for Croatian).  However, it is also said that Serbian uses both alphabets, so I suppose this is not a hard-and-fast rule.

"Dobar dan"—meaning "good day"—is the same in Serbian and Croatian (and presumably Montenegrin). One source lists "zdravo" as the equivalent greeting in Bosnian, but other sources say that "zdravo" is the Serbian word for "hello" (as opposed to "good day"), so I.  My guess is that the Serbian Cyrillic version of the word would be "добар дан".  This seems to be confirmed by the previously cited reference.

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Words to Your Mother: Bodhisattva

Technical problems delayed my posting last night, so I'll shoot for a double-whammy tonight.

A bodhisattva is defined by The Free Dictionary as "an enlightened being who, out of compassion, forgoes nirvana in order to save others". The concept of the bodhisattva comes from the Buddhist religion. In fact, Siddhārtha Gautama himself was considered a bodhisattva before he became a buddha (or Buddha, as the case may be).  Essentially, the bodhisattva delays his own enlightenment for the benefit of others, practicing self-sacrifice by training others.

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Words to Your Mother: Spick and span

The phrase "spick and span" -- meaning immaculately clean or brand new -- can't be taken at face value. To begin with, the modern definition of spick seems that it has little to do with the word (especially since this idiom generally is not considered offensive), and the definition for span seems equally unrelated.  As it turns out, "spick" is an archaic variation of "spike".  "Span"  is an abbreviation of "span-new", which means "entirely new".  The connection?  "Spick and span" originally meant something to the effect of "as new as a newly made nail".  So there you go.

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Words to Your Mother Poll: From whence the words came

(Whence, incidentally, has nothing to do with "when", but instead means "from where" or "from what origin".)

Thought I'd conduct a little poll, more out of curiosity than anything else.

In the "Words to Your Mother" feature that has essentially taken over "Everyone Is Jumping Off the Brooklyn Bridge", I generally have not stuck to English words, or even for that matter words that are remotely likely to be introduced into English.  So, just out of curiosity, what do you like to see in your word of the day feature?  Do you prefer English-only, or primarily non-English words, or some mixture thereof?

Just to be clear, this isn't an offer to change the content of this blog.  I keep this up more because I enjoy the research than anything, and I'll probably continue to stick with what I find interesting at the moment.  If I ever change that, I don't expect the blog to continue for long.  Besides, I personally think that the mixture sets this apart from other word-of-the-day sites.  However, I would like to know what people think, if only for curiosity's sake.  I suppose that if I'm wavering as to what word to pick, public opinion might sway me slightly one way or t'other.

Perhaps more importantly, I'm curious to see how many regular readers there are in general, so feel free to post a response on this post that says "I have no opinion" or even "Why should I bother posting if you don't plan on changing anything?".  General feedback is welcome as well.

Well, that's all for tonight.

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Words to Your Mother: Churlish

Resisting the urge to say that churlish is befitting a churl, even if it is.  Can't do that gag twice in a week.

Churlish means having a bad disposition or being difficult to work with.  It can also mean rude and boorish.  Generally not a good thing, although it could theoretically stop people from bothering you about things.  Probably not the best route to go.

I may be getting stuck in a rut: This is my third English-language word in a row.  I have some intriguing non-English stuff lined up for later, though, so stay tuned.

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Words to Your Mother: Somnambulist

A somnambulist is someone who engages in somnambulism.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, somnambulist, somnambulism, sleepwalking

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Words to Your Mother: Avast

Yep.  It's my belated "Talk Like a Pirate Day" entry. (The actual day was September 19th.)

"Avast" means to "stop and give attention".  Wiktionary defines this meaning (or, more specifically, "listen, pay attention") as "a parody of pirate slang", giving the main definition as "hold fast".

Interestingly enough, it would appear that "avast" may also be Italian for stop or "enough".  Unfortunately, I'm having trouble confirming this outside of Wiktionary.  Perhaps it's imported from the English word, and thus not listed in most cross-language dictionaries.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, avast, pirates, Talk Like a Pirate Day, Italian

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Words to Your Mother: Jiffy

It may cook fast, but it doesn't cook that fast.

In an attempt to live up to my title, I'm using a word that—in addition to being mom-friendly—is a word you may have actually used to your mother in the past. For example, "I'll be there in a jiffy", which, as it turns out, was probably not true at any time that you said it.

A jiffy is, in its loosest definition, a moment of time. However, there's no fun in that.

For computing, a jiffy is a fairly short period of time, typically amounting to 0.0100 seconds, or the duration of the system timer interrupt.

In electronics, a jiffy is 0.0167-0.0200 seconds, or the time that it takes to alternate power cycles in AC current. (Yes, AC current is redundant. So sue me. Or injure me and send me to the ER room¹. Or take away my NIC card² so I can't post any more: I'll just buy another once I have a chance to stop by the ATM machine³. But I digress.)

Not content to have a lengthy jiffy, computers fought back: A jiffy in the Linux 2.6.13+ kernel is 0.0040 seconds. In Linux 2.6.0–2.6.12 it is even shorter: 0.0010 seconds.

Unfortunately, the physicists had to show off again: Although the definition can vary, one of the more common definitions is the amount of time it takes light to travel one centimeter in a vacuum. That's 0.000000000333564 seconds.

Of course, the quantum physicists had to top that, and go for the amount of time it takes for light to travel across a fermi. We're down to 0.00000000000000000000001 seconds here.

So, again, it was unlikely that you were actually there in a jiffy. In fact, depending on your definition, you probably took a few billion of them.

Footnotes:

¹ Okay, I actually really hate this one.

² This gets on my nerves too.

³ I don't really care about this too much for some reason.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, jiffy

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Words to Your Mother: Bwana

My name's not racist.
No, seriously.

Wow. Third post about Swahili in a month. (#1 - #2) You'd almost think that it was one of the languages that I've actually spent time studying. Maybe I should at some point, but I haven't yet. But enough about me.

Bwana is Swahili for "Mr." or "sir" (or, if you want to get Biblical, Lord). The female equivalent is Bibi. Despite occasional rumors otherwise, it is not a word for "master", and in native Swahili doesn't have any of the racist connotations sometimes attributed to it.

Incidentally, B'wana Beast is also the name of a hero from DC Comics who never exactly achieved Superman status.  Unfortunately for B'wana, changing his name didn't help much.  Of course, such things rarely do.

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Words to Your Mother: Phantasmagoria

Okay. I'm really not sure
what to say here.

Phantasmagoria is a fantastic sequence of images randomly strewn together, as in a surreal dream. Dictionary.com also lists it as "a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination."

One of us has had a little too much,
and I'm not sure which it is.

In fact, the word is closely related to "phantasm" or "phantasma" (a phantom or apparition), and may be a joining of that word with the word "allegory". Alternatively, the second part may be related to "agorá", a Greek word for "assembly" or "gathering" (thus, a gathering of phantasms).

It would appear that Jack London was a fan of the word, as he used it in at least four of his stories: Before Adam, Jerry of the Islands, John Barleycorn, and Martin Eden.

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Words to Your Mother: Uff da

Uff da (pronounced and occasionally spelled "oofda") is a fairly versatile Norwegian word that means "oops", "drat", or "ouch".  It can also be used in a sympathetic manner (like saying "wow" or "man" at the beginning of a sentence in English).  The term is fairly common in the Minnesota-Wisconsin area of the U.S., where culture has been influenced by Scandinavian immigrants over the years.  In that area of the country, the phrase might also be used as a general expression of suprise.

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Words to Your Mother: Quail

Far from meaning "acting like a quail" (at least, in any way I can think of) to quail means "to shrink back in fear; cower" or "draw back, as with fear or pain".  Lest you think that this might actually be based on some sort of ornithological behavior, the two words come from very different origins: The bird name comes from the Middle English "quaille", which in turn comes from Old French (and possibly from Vulgar Latin), whereas the verb "quail" is from the Middle English "quailen" ("to give way"), which in turn may be from the Middle Dutch word "quelen" ("to suffer").  So don't knock the quails.  They don't quail on you.  Or if they do, it's rather something of a coincidence.

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Words to Your Mother: Brae

Brae is a Scottish word for a hillside or slope.  In addition, it is a settlement in the Shetland Islands.

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Words to Your Mother: Picayune

A picayune is a Spanish coin that was at one point worth about five cents.  However, it has become a more general word for something trivial, petty, or nearly valueless.

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Words to Your Mother: Foster's

Foster's is Australian for beer.

Uh... Maybe I shouldn't write this so late at night.

Let's try this again.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, Foster's, beer, Australia

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Words to Your Mother: Hakuna matata

Yep.  Straight from Biblical Hebrew to Disney.  If it makes you feel any better, I'm far more interested in the phrase's larger context than it's musical one.

Hakuna matata means "no..."  Uh, that is, it means "here there are no concerns".  The phrase is in Swahili, and, no, it was not made up for the movie.  In fact, a literal Kiswahili translation of "no worries" would be "hamna shida".  Hakuna matata is a rather common Swahili phrase, and has appeared in plenty of other places outside of the movie whose name I have narrowly avoided mentioning thus far.

You can take apart the phrase as follows:

haku: Locative prefix; "there are not".

na: Negative suffix.

ma: Plural prefix.

[ji]tata: Concerns.

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Words to Your Mother: סלה (selah)

סלה: The pause that refreshes.

In the heading of the article, Wikipedia refers to the Biblical Hebrew word סלה (transliterated as selah or çelâh) as meaning "stop and listen", a term that stresses the importance of the preceding passage. However (as the rest of the article makes clear), this is something of an oversimplification.

The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible refers to çelâh (Hebrew word #5542) as a "suspension (of music), i.e. pause". Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words believes that selah is connected with sālāl (meaning "to lift up"): The instruments would be lifted up to increase their sound while voices were kept silent. Alternatively, it mentions the possibility that selah is connected with shālāh (to rest), but Vine's seems far less confident of that connection. Vine's final word is that selah effectively says "This being so, give heed to what is now to be said", effectively connecting what precedes with what follows, stressing both.

Insight on the Scriptures (volume two) somewhat more bluntly admits that "although it is generally thought to be a technical term for music or recitation, its exact significance is unknown". However, it suggests the meaning of a "pause, suspension, or holding back", saying that "the pause was doubtless used to make the fact or sentiment just expressed more impressive, to allow the full import of the last utterance to sink in".

Hebrew is written from right-to-left, so (if your browser is rendering this properly), the letters should be read in that direction. Character by character, the letters are:

ס: Tameka's

ל: La'medh

ה: He'

Depending on your browser, you may notice an odd effect when you drag your mouse over the text: The English part highlights from left-to-right, but then the highlighting jumps to the right side of the Hebrew text, at which point it begins moving to the left.  Once you highlight past the Hebrew text, the highlighting should appear continuous.  Go ahead and give it a shot.

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Words to Your Mother: Virtu

Virtu (or vertu) is a knowledge or love of or taste for objects of fine art.  It can also refer to certain groups of objets d'art.

I think my spell-check hates me for this post.

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Words to Your Mother: Apotheosis

Apotheosis is deification, although it can also refer to an exalted example ("the apotheosis of courage").  This "godhood" has been granted to many famous leaders and artists by their respective cultures, including Alexander the Great, Homer, and Julius Caesar.  No respect for the blue-collar guys, I guess.

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Words to Your Mother: Jejune

Something that is jejune is uninteresting or dull.  I'd write more, but I don't have much to say about it, so it would probably turn out rather jejune.

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Words to Your Mother: Teratonym?

We'll make this another double-post day, because this one really, really doesn't count.

A teratonym is a really big word.  It is derived from terato (Greek for "monster") and nym ("name").  It is the same as a sesquipedalian word.

So why doesn't this word count?  Well, to be blunt, it's not a real word.

Teratonym was the winning entry in the mental_floss contest to coin a new word.  Thus, this is not an existing English word, and mainly deserves our attention due to the care taken in creating it.  Not to mention the clever title for the article that presented it.

Then again, what is a "real" word?  All words start as neologisms at some point.  Thus, if the word is adopted, it might go from the status of made-up word to slang to neologism to standard dictionary word.  So, if you like it, use it, but please explain it to the people you use it to.  Words that aren't understood don't grow and thrive.

Just remember: It's a whole lot easier to say than sesquipedalian.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, teratonym, sesquipedalian, neologisms

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Words to Your Mother: Achtung

Yeah, baby!

Just as well that I doubled up the other day, seeing as I missed the next day. Funny how things work out sometimes.

"Achtung" is German for "cuidado".

Actually, the dubious translation of Babelfish lists "cuidado" as meaning "taken care of", which doesn't sound quite right. A more reliable source lists "cuidado" as meaning care, carefulness, fear, worry, take care, beware, etc.

However, that isn't quite the translation that we're looking for.

"Achtung" is stated to mean "attention", although it is sometimes referred to as "caution" or "careful!", which I'm presuming are accurate translations as well.

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Words to Your Mother: Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble

I'll do something that I rarely do here: I'm posting two words within an hour of each other.  Normally I only do that to catch up for missing days, but in this case these are words that go together well.

Much like "qu'est-ce que c'est", "sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble" is a French phrase that for many is best known as a song lyric, in this case from The Beatles' song "Michelle".  The relevant portions of the lyrics go as follows:

Michelle, ma belle
Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble
Tres bien ensemble

"Ma belle" means "my beautiful", and is pronounced largely as you would expect.  As with the aforementioned Talking Heads lyrics, it helps to clip off the final consonants of many of the words, leaving the pronunciation of the rest somewhat as follows:

Son le mot qui von tre bien ensem

Sort of like:

Sohn lay moat key voan tray bee-ann on-som

Or, if you prefer:

Someday monkey won't play piano song
Play piano song

According to A Hard Day's Write, The Beatles didn't speak French, so Paul's friend Jan Vaughan (the wife of the fellow who introduced John and Paul) was a French language teacher.  Paul said that "I asked her what sort of things I could say that were French and which would go together well [...] because I'd always thought that the song sounded French".  Vaughan came up with both the name Michelle and the lyrics that rhymed with that name.  Paul later requested that she translate a specific phrase (the one that we're considering), which appears in English at the beginning of the song:

Michelle, ma belle
These are words that go together well

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Words to Your Mother: Qu'est-ce que c'est?

"Qu'est-ce que c'est?" is French for "What is it?"  This phrase is particularly notable as part of the chorus to the Talking Heads song "Psycho Killer".  Or not.

See, there seems to be a minor dispute depending on your source.  Some say "qu'est-ce que c'est", but others say "qu'est que c'est" (omitting the "-ce").  Few sources acknowledge the difference, but at least one suggests the former to be the correct one.  (Somewhat ironically, the title of the thread is the latter one.)

There's also a slight translation dispute: Some sources say that the phrase means "That is that it is".  However, these sources generally omit the "-ce", and, if Babelfish is to be believed (and it isn't always), that is the correct translation with the "-ce" missing.

According to one source (which uses the "qu'est que c'est" version), the rest of the French lyrics are translated as follows:

Ce que j'ai fait, ce soir la (what I did, that night)
Ce qu'elle a dit, ce soir la (what she said, that night)
Realisant, mon espoir (fulfilling, my hope)
Je me lance vers la gloire (I go for the glory)

I'm not particularly well-versed in French or it's pronunciation, but we can try to apply a few basic rules from Wikipedia's article on French:

1. Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, arenormally silent.
   This strips the words down to "Qu'es-ce que c'es?"
   

Okay, I guess that was the only rule we're going to apply.  Listening to David Byrne singing the lyrics, it sounds to me like "kess keh see" (notice that I don't hear the "-ce" myself), but I can't claim to have a trained ear for French.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, Qu'est-ce que c'est, Qu'est que c'est, French, Psycho Killer, Talking Heads, David Byrne

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Words to Your Mother: Languorous

Something that is languorous is lethargic, lacking in mental or physical energy.  Someone who is languorous might tend to make short blog entries, perhaps even ending them in mid-

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Words to Your Mother Index (9/4/06)

Words to Your Mother keeps plugging along, and has now focused on 51 different words and phrases. Here's an updated alphabetical index of what's been covered so far.  Some of the more distinctively non-English words have notes as to the language they are from and used in.  Words written in non-Latin character sets are alphabetized by approximate English spellings.

abugida
Ἀγάπη (agape) (Koine Greek)
amiga (Spanish)
apothecary
baleen
beaucoup
caduceus
certitude
chào (Vietnamese)
chiropodist
colporteur
contemn
decimation
devolve
懂嗎 (懂吗/dong ma) (Mandarin Chinese)
draconian
ebay (Pig Latin)
embarazada (Spanish)
estuary
flustrated
fulsome
harangue
icthys
impeachment
impress
inter arma enim silent leges (Latin)
ជំរាបសួរ (joom reeup sooa) (Cambodian/Khmer)
junk
khara (Sanskrit)
klaatu barada nikto (fictional language)
louche
maximal
miter
n'est-ce pas (French)
noblesse oblige (French)
nuqneH (Klingon)
panacea
pangram
perestroika
philology
postlude
Rashomon effect
schadenfreude
screed
souma yergon (Wolof [?])
sushi
tchotchke (Yiddish)
uhuru (Swahili)
verisimilitude
whom
zimbra (not a real word)

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, Words to Your Mother, index

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Words to Your Mother: 懂嗎 (懂吗/dong ma)

Had trouble posting last night, so I'm effectively doubling up tonight to keep my roughly one word/phrase per day schedule.

懂嗎 (懂吗 or dong ma) is Mandarin Chinese for "Understand?" or "Got it?"  Ni dong ma is a slightly more proper way of saying this.

Like Vietnamese or Hmong, Chinese is a tonal language.  In this case, the tone for "dong" starts low and dips even lower.  The tone for "ma" should be fairly neutral.

As you can probably guess from the links, this phrase pops up a fair amount in Firefly and Serenity.  Shiny.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, 懂嗎, 懂吗, dong ma, Mandarin, Chinese, tonal languages

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Words to Your Mother: Caduceus

Snakes on a one-dimensional plane

A caduceus is a winged staff with two snakes wrapped around it. It may seem a bit odd to have a word for something like that, but it has become a common symbol of the medical profession. It originally comes from Greco-Roman legends about Mercury/Hermes, who carried such a device.

Snakes? Why did it have to be snakes? Not really sure. Originally, ribbons were wrapped around the staff. At some point the mythology changed to include snakes instead.

Caduceus is commonly and properly pronounced kah-doo-see-us, although there are a few different valid ways to pronounce it.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, caduceus

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Words to Your Mother: Draconian

Something that is draconian is exceedingly harsh.  The term is named after Draco, a Greek scribe and lawmaker who proscribed the death penalty for (among other things) stealing cabbage.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, draconian, Draco

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Words to Your Mother: Philology

Philology should be close to the heart of anyone who follows this blog.  The modern meaning of philology is linguistics or the study of literary texts.  However, an obsolete definition calls it "the love of learning and literature", and Wikipedia says the following:

Philology is etymologically defined as the love of words, and most accurately defined as an affinity toward the learning of the backgrounds as well as the current usages of spoken or written methods of human communication.

Apropos, no?

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, philology

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Words to Your Mother: Uhuru

Free to do what she wants any old time

"Uhuru" is the Swahili word for "freedom". It is also the basis for the name of "Uhura", Nichelle Nichols' character from Star Trek. This character has been mislabeled Uhuru several times, most notably in the end credits of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Uhura's name is a potential source from which to learn several Swahili words. Although she has never been given a name other than Uhura on-screen (and, according to some accounts, isn't supposed to have another name), her first name is generally accepted as "Nyota", meaning "star".

Nichols has occasionally referred to the character's middle name as "Upenda" or "Penda". "Penda" is Swahili for "to love" or "to like". Throw it all together and you have "Nyota (U)Penda Uhura" -- "Star Love Freedom". Perfect for a show that was made in the mid-60's.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, uhuru, nyota, upenda, penda, Swahili, Star Trek

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