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Exactly what it says on the can - I'm looking for a word in tlhingan-Hol (Klingon) for "skull".

Fallback: In case there isn't a canon word, I'm defaulting to using "head bone" as a replacement. I know from TKD that nach is "head" and Hom is "bone". Is this combination nach Hom correct? e.g. is jaghpu'ma' nach HomDu' a reasonable translation for "our enemies' skulls"?

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Indeed, there doesn't seem to be any canon word for "skull" in Klingon, so a compound should be fine.

Note, however, that some compounds are constructed without separation between their parts (see for example Wiktionary's list of Klingon compound words) with no apparent rule as to why, so "skull" could conceivably be nachHom.

BUT, since -Hom is also the diminutive suffix, nachHom would primarily mean "little skull", making nach Hom is the less ambiguous translation.

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  • Thanks for the reference to wikitionary "words by etymology" - never thought there's such a resource. I think that since there's a diminutive suffix '-Hom', 'nachHom' would be read as "smallhead" rather than "skull"
    – G0BLiN
    Commented Sep 15, 2019 at 9:01
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    @G0BLiN I definitely should have checked that before answering. In this case, 'nach Hom' is better, I think.
    – Cecilia
    Commented Sep 16, 2019 at 10:44
  • Richard - maybe edit your answer to reflect on why nachHom may not be suitable in this case? Comments aren't permanent, but this insight is relevant to the answer.
    – G0BLiN
    Commented Sep 23, 2019 at 11:57
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[Update from 2022]

Turns out the word was (semi-officially?) added to the lexicon a few months after the question and @Richard's answer - at qepHom 2019 (an annual meeting of Klingonists in Germany).

The word for "skull" is DughrI'

(Added on 11/17/2019)

See kli.com New Klingon Words (not in the original lexicon) page as citation.

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