From: "Marc Okrand" [email protected]
Newsgroups: msn.onstage.startrek.expert.okrand
Date: 13 Jul 1997
Subject: Re: Expensive word

I hope this word isn't overly expensive (that is, I hope nobody has
anything riding on my answer), but here's the deal.

wagh is "be expensive."

waH means "try out, use (experimentally)" and it is also the word used
for "taste" in the sense of trying out food to see if it's prepared
properly or to find out if you like it. Another verb, mum, means "taste"
in the sense of "perceive flavor(s)." Thus, the English sentence "I taste
the gagh" (if "gagh" can be properly used in an English sentence) may be
translated into Klingon in two ways:

qagh vImum "I perceive the gagh's flavor"
(qagh "gagh," vImum "I taste it")

qagh vIwaH "I try out the gagh "
(vIwaH "I taste it")

(If you're not a Klingon but plan on tasting gagh, by the way, I suggest
you find a good restaurant and stick to qagh wagh "expensive gagh.")