Beautiful words from Seshaa.



aakilim (noun) – In Waterjewel use, means “beautywords” or “the lexicon of romance.” This includes all words relating to sexual attraction or activities.

belîrzis (noun or adjective) – In Waterjewel use, a color word that means “indeterminate” or “shifting.” It’s almost like “opalescent” although the connotation is not one of pearly sheen but of combining several subtle colors together. Examples include shot silk with warp and weft in two different tones, or a lavender that can look blue in some light and pink in other light, or the way a soap bubble looks, or clouds of ambiguous hue. The phrase at belîrzis (“horse of many colors” or “horse of a different color”) is what Waterjewel folks use for the perhaps mythical black horse whose hair has true iridescence, giving it an overlay of purple, blue, even green over the black.

chiyan (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means “the taste of a lover’s mouth when you kiss.”

dorumak (verb) – In Whispering Sands use, the denotation is “to flow softly” or “to pour beautifully.” It refers to such things as the elegant motion of sand dancing with the wind. It can also mean “to spend time,” with a connotation of doing so deliberately and gladly, as in working on a hobby: “I have no energy for a walk; I already spent my legs dancing.”

enasha (noun) – In Waterjewel use, this refers to a phenomenon or state of being similar to the English “consilience.” It is cooperative, cohesive, flexible, organic, and very strong; definitely a whole greater than the sum of its parts. It allows for diversity and individuality within a framework of common experience and function, rather like a tree in autumn has leaves of many different colors although they all belong to the same tree. Then too, these factors yield a multiplicity of viewpoints, like the individual facets on the eye of an insect, which gives the insect greatly superior depth perception, targeting ability, and peripheral vision; a solution that eludes one person’s field of perception may well be smack in the middle of someone else’s.

faali (adjective) – In Whispering Sands use, means “subtle” or “ineffable,” sometimes in a mundane sense but more often magical or spiritual. For horses, it means “smooth-gaited,” and Waterjewel folks especially look for this quality in Healer-horses.

galee (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means something like “sparkle” (as in the fire that makes a jewel beautiful), “zest” (as in verve or zing), “spice” (as in a sharp, pleasant flavor that makes food exciting), etc. It’s the highlight that changes something from ordinary to extraordinary. This is popular as a term of affection.

hinaal (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means “grace,” a particular floating, soaring grace like a falcon on the wing.

isabet (expression) – In Whispering Sands use, means “hitting the mark” or “doing a thing right.” Waterjewel adds a spiritual connotation, so it can mean something like “living a good life.”

jibaa (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means “a horse’s fine forehead.” It’s important because this indicates the size of brainspace available. A broad forehead makes for an intelligent horse. The favorite desert horse is similar to Terra’s Arab breed, with a head wide between the eyes and narrowing to a dainty muzzle. The Sultan’s kiimey (“bone horse”) type is a bit closer to the Lippizaner breed.

kirik (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means “a spiderweb of cracks” or more generally, “a crack-patterned thing.” Crackle-glazed pots or tiles are especially popular, so a common meaning is “crackle-pot.” The connotations are beauty, and a contradictory sense of both fragility and vulnerability: stronger than it looks, but susceptible to shattering if hit just right. Kirik can also mean “flawed beauty” in the sense of “a thing which is beautiful because of its flaws” or “a flaw which makes something beautiful.”

lihaaf (noun) – In Waterjewel use, means “a patchwork quilt.” The Daughters of the Wind invented the trick of making quilts from scraps, not as tidy a process as Terran quilting. If possible they would start by sewing scraps to a worn but still solid sheet or blanket, building up the layers to make a warm quilt. But sometimes they had only scraps, and would piece the larger ones together for the base layer. By Waterjewel’s time, people are using new fabric of much finer quality, and more deliberate patterns – but the traditional style still exists. Just because they’re rich now doesn’t mean they’re inclined to be wasteful. Most of the horse blankets are this type. The Kiroan gutterfoxen call this a “kiss-me quilt.”

mataar (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means “rain” but a special rain. In a desert, all rain is important, but some is more important than others. This is a blessed rain, a wished-for rain, a rain that comes after a long dry spell, or a good soaking rain that gives generously of itself.

nikâyu (adjective or noun) – Among elven tribes, means “double black” or “infrared and ultraviolet.” This is the name for a very popular combination of colors, amar (infrared) and mor (ultraviolet), often woven together in stripes, shot silk, or other patterns. It’s considered lucky. To humans this combination looks plain black, though sometimes they can perceive slightly different tones, as in blackwork where the threads are differently reflective.

ongoru (adjective or adverb) – In Whispering Sands use, means “far-sighted” in the way that elves can easily think in terms of centuries or longer, as opposed to humans who usually have a hard time thinking even a few years ahead; although of course some elves are not ongoru and some humans are.

piraan (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means “a message in sand or dust.” This is a type of tefna (“omen”) in which the ripples in sand or dust, or some other soft powdery substance, look like words and suggest messages to the viewer.

qaatif (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means “shaggy silk” or “long silk velvet.” This is fabric made by turning silk into a fluffy nap, trimmed raggedly, with the long ends up to about half an inch long. It looks exquisitely furry, especially when blending different colors together; but it’s very rare and expensive, almost never seen outside of decadent territory. Most people still know about it.

Ruykhesh (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, this is a mythical place, or an altered state of consciousness, depending on how you want to look at it. It’s a colloquial term for “sleep,” literally “Dreamcity.” A very pretty metaphor for falling asleep is Ruykheshii ralamak (“to visit Dreamcity”).

shaheer (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means something like “life purpose” or “the meaning of life.” It doesn’t translate well into English. There are connotations of happiness, contentment, and satisfaction that relate feelings of fulfillment when one is following one’s purpose. There are other connotations of opportunity, action, learning, and growth which relate to the goals contained within the purpose of life. There is a practical note which refers to one’s core being or nature. Then there are the numinous and mysterious layers, not quite destiny, but something like divine potential or enlightenment, which relate to the meaning of life.

tileet (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means “the artisan’s hand” or “the clever fingers” and this includes such things as the ability to shape clay, to draw or paint, especially to take an image from the mind and manifest it into reality, a kind of sensitivity and dexterity that goes beyond the merely physical. It is considered to be an organ of the subtle body.

ushu (noun) – In Waterjewel use, means something like “love in motion,” “love helping others,” or perhaps “caring.” It is the noun form for talking about the action of expressing love, not so much romantic love as love for other creatures, lovingkindness. When you give from generosity and it feels good, when you help simply because you can and someone needs it – that is ushu. A bandit would probably render it as “charity” and be pissed about it. The closest Terran match I can think of is the Hawaiian aloha.

vaherash (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means “oasis coat.” This is a dancing coat with three-quarter-length sleeves, falling just past the knees, open down the front, and with no hood. It has fringe all around the sleeve cuffs, the bottom of the sleeve, the vertical hems of the front opening, and the bottom hem. The cloth is partially diaphanous with a pattern flocked onto it, like a lelit scarf.

warashar (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means “crescent dune,” an older and more poetic term for a barkhan.

yumeh (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, this refers to a practical or decorative object made from the shell of an egg, usually ostrich. It is usually translated as “egg basket.” The most common version is a sort of box made by sawing the top off so that it becomes a lid, and putting feet on the bottom of the egg so it can stand up, and lining the inside with felt or velvet. Another sort has the entire shell carved into a lattice of arabesques, often stuffed with incense or fragrant herbs. It can also refer to a specific type of literature, which has a plot about the size that would suit a short story, but very skillfully and ornately expanded to the size of a novel.

zaarif (adjective) – In Waterjewel use, means “devastatingly elegant” or “graceful, witty, and refined” and refers to the kind of person for whom just looking at him sweeps you off your feet, blows your composure, and causes you to throw caution to the wind.

Tags: linguistics, seshaa
Current Mood: busy