Fire: related verbs and usage

Word list

(qul) chenmoH	v.	light a fire, ignite
meQ	v.	burn
qul	n.	fire
qul qaDwI'	n.	firefighter, lit. fire challenger
qul QongmoHwI'	n.	firefighter, one who puts fires to sleep, but that's usually not applied until the fire is actually out.
qul SuvwI'	n.	firefighter, lit. fire fighter, fire warrior
qul tlhay'moHwI'	n.	firefighter, lit. fire tamer (less frequent)
QongmoH	v.	extinguish fire, lit. put to sleep, cause to sleep

Firefighters

One common way of expressing lighting or starting a fire is with chenmoH: qul vIchenmoH "I light a fire." Another way to talk about igniting and extinguishing a fire is with vemmoH "wake up, cause to wake up" and QongmoH "put to sleep, cause to sleep." In the Klingon way of thinking, fire is sort of there all the time, but it's normally sleeping or dormant. Fire is pretty weird stuff. (Spontaneous combustion would also be described by making use of vem.)

There is no one way to say "fire fighter." Among the options are, of course, qul SuvwI' "fire fighter, fire warrior," but also qul qaDwI' "fire challenger" and (though less frequent) qul tlhay'moHwI' "fire tamer." It's also possible to say qul QongmoHwI' "one who puts fires to sleep," but that's usually not applied until the fire is actually out.

(qepHom 2020)

Proverbs

One of the replacement proverbs is:

DopDaq qul yIchenmoH QobDI' ghu'.
Set fire on the side when there is danger.

Usage in Discovery

In Star Trek: Discovery – which is not considered canon – a phrase was heard qul yIchu' to say "light the fire". One might argue it uses the incorrect verb, but on the other hand, it's not talking about making a fire, the phrase point at te fire of a torch, which makes sense to be "activated", using the verb chu'.