Glossary of Coscivian Terms

Æ

• æglasta - n. Church, from Gaelic eaglais.
• ælum - n. Water

A

• abgôn - n. Violent conflict, understood to encompass the range of magnitude larger than a one-on-one fight but arbitrarily smaller than a full-scale war (dyra).
• amderen - n. A deliverable submitted for authoritative review; a brief or proposal. In Higher education in Kiravia, an amderen is a paper or project for which an academic degree is awarded - it is the more common form of trua ('monstration'), the other being the ōrstava.
• amtra - n. Countyship.
• ar - v. To speak. The corresponding verbal noun is arda ('speech', 'talk', 'discussion').
• askola - n. Society, Gesellschaft.
• axerka - n. Colony. From High Coscivian, originally used to designate settlements placed by the First Coscivian Empire in their conquered provinces.
• Avrenn - n. The Catholic Mass; from Gaelic Aifreann, itself from Latin offerendum.
• axira - n. History.
• álda - n. Law
• áldalak - n. Police; literally 'arm of the law', from álda ('law') + lak ('arm').
• ákisdurisēn - n. Political-economic system in which the state takes a leading, directive role in the economy, encompassing a range of systems from Gallic dirigisme to various forms of command economies. Derived from Ákidur, a title given to officials of the First Coscivian Empire who oversaw the construction and maintenance of roads and irrigation works, the term was coined during the Kilikas Enlightenment by the Ilánovan philosopher and economist Cain Pālin as an antonym for the early market-driven capitalist mode of production that was developing around the Kilikas Sea during that period. Other Kiravian Enlightenment thinkers, such as Ixion Asterôn and Lasarénus Sarkévir, embraced the term in their own works on political economy, whereïn they argued that an ákisdurisēx system of material relations was incompatible with kéarita (see below), and that a market economy was an essential component of a just republic, laying the foundations of the Kiravian branch of conservative-liberal thought.

B

• bithnix - adj. Deep, both in the familiar spatial sense and in regard to time depth, as Kiravic represents time as a water column.
• brùdispan - n. Literally incomplete defecation; more often used figuratively to denote a product or result that falls short of its intended goals due to lack of effort and/or failure to successfully balance competing design aims and priorities, yielding a result that is worse than useless and usually actively detrimental to its original purpose. Frequently rendered into Ænglish as "half-assed", but this loses something in translation.
• burgundirisēn - n. A liberal conservative political outlook associated with the metropolitan upper-middle classes. The term is common in political commentary and in the names of state-level political parties. Derived from the name of Burgundie, in reference to the mercantile classes of Valēka, Bérasar, and Kérvoak, who adopted such an outlook during the Kilikas Enlightenment, partially influenced by political thought in Burgundie, with which they conducted a great deal of business.

C

Though nonstandard nowadays, some older transcription schemes for Kiravic Coscivian use the letter 'C' to represent the /ks/ sound; it is also sometimes seen in placenames and a few Celtic and Latinate loans.

D

• danrin - Family. Usually refers to a nuclear family, but can be used to denote an extended family sharing a single household. Found in scientific terms such as ronadanrin ("language family"), and as the translation for the Western taxonomic term genus.
• darin - Lake. Common in placenames, e.g. Xistódarin ("Icelake"), Iber Darisk ("Lake Forest"), and Darin Kétersk ("Lake of the Woods").
• dasa - n. Village, carrying the slightly negative denotation of a backward, undifferentiated peasant settlement. Contrast kōsuv.
• dának - n. Secretary (in the sense of a public office, e.g. Ēvsidának or committee position rather than an administrative assistant), clerk, diplomatic chargé d'affaires. From Gaelic Déanacht and/or Deagánach, themselves from Latin Decanus.
• devahoma - Continent. From Iathei Coscivian deva(s) ("main", borrowed into High Coscivian where it took on a meaning similar to the English cardinal) + homa ("landmass").
• dirdhuv - n. Gun.
• dóntra - An extended family, usually comprising three or four generations descended from a single grandfather or great-grandfather. Found in scientific terms such as ronadóntra, and as the equivalent of the English taxonomic term family.
• dralm - n. Rye, including both true rye (Secale cereale) and 'wildrye' (various cereal grasses in the genus Elymus widely cultivated in Great Kirav).
• dyra - n. War.

Dh

• dhansten - Newspaper
• dhianbrikorisēn - n. The idea that the various ethnosocial communities to which Coscivian-Kiravians belong should not be recognised by the state or have any legal significance.

E

• eruvix - adj. Grey-green. Nominal form: eruvir.
• ektar - n. Structure.
• ektarrisēn n. Structuralism in architecture; common under the Kiravian Union.
• elurix - adj. Special, extraördinary.
• ēln - n. The most general term for potato.

F

• fara - n. Sea, in the sense of a subdivision of a larger ocean, such as the Kilikas Sea (Fara Kilikas) or the Sea of Odoneru (Deśkafara, literally "Southern Sea").
• faravōlōn - n. Generic term for a marine corps, literally "sea troops". Kiravian marines are called kurraxinya specifically.
• fardix - adj. Brown
• fèlen - n. Market, in either the concrete sense of a physical Marketplace or the abstract sense (i.e. helvifèlen, 'free market').

G

• Génuv - n. the Sun.
• gisva - n. Seal, approval, authority.

Ğ

• ğámpraxuruv - n. Nebula. From ğámpra ("womb") + xuruv ("cloud").
• ğison - n. Chemical, pure substance. In botany and agriculture, an extract or essence.
• ğudra - n. Nation, Nationality

H

• handum - n. Meat.
• hankaritax - adj. Humane, humanitarian.
• Harsitem - n. Historically disadvantaged social group(s) descended from the untouchable outcaste communities of mediæval and early modern Kirav.
• hasa - n. Ship.
• Hekuv - n. Caphiria.
• Hekuvihírsa - n. Genre of Kiravian popular fiction stories set in Caphiria and sharing certain themes drawn from Kiravians' outsider impressions of Caphiric culture.
• Héluv - n. Goth, a Gothic person; from Welute.
• hérsan - n. Army, either specifically a ground force or an armed force generally (e.g. Asûrhérsan, 'air force').
• hūrix - adj. Red.

I

• iber - n. Coniferous forest, e.g. Gûdelix Iber.
• iglórix - n. Global, planetary; from iglórin ('heavenly orb').
• ilovárum - n. University or college.
• inkuv - n. A type of way station along roadways dating from ancient times. Today, a highway rest stop or travel plaza.
• ion - n. Island
• ioskova - n. Ocean. Compare páska.
• Istavem - n. Élite stratum of endogamous social groups (tuva) traditionally associated with sacerdotal, scholarly/literary, and pædagogical professions.
• iskorvin - n. Organisation.
• iskorvibalv - n. Organised crime.
• iśkevatha, iśkev - n. Whiskey.
• ixtix - adj. High. Antonymous to yanx ('low').
• îtexon - n. Electricity. From Classical Eskean aıtexoɰ (ray, skate) via High Coscivian.

K

• kalir - n. A mildly psychotropic herb, both smoked and used as a food seasoning. First cultivated by the Soran Coscivian people, possibly of Allyrian derivation.
• kerex - adj. The most general of the many Kiravic words for green.
• kéarita - n. Translated as "republic", "commonwealth", or "public state", ... Unlike republic, kéarita connotes neither democracy nor sovereignty. For millennia, it was used exclusively in reference to localised communities, whether city-states or villages, and is used as the official pretitle of many Kiravian states (e.g. Kéarita Kaviska). Kirosocialist theorists claimed that a single-party state was the ultimate manifestation of a kéarita. Also unlike republic, kéarita is not an antonym of monarchy (prostakuv), with many Coscivian monarchies during the Inter-Imperial and Post-Imperial periods styling themselves as kéaritæ
• kēlen - n. Company
• kētka - n. A common cultural norm relating to work ethic, most often translated as 'slack'.
• kirstuv - n. Decision-making body, usually translated as "committee" or "commission", but also "council". Traditionally (as far back as the First Inter-Imperial Period), a kirstuv was a council of elders governing a Coscivian village or tribe. Later, it came to mean a council that held authority over members of a particular ethnosocial tathra in a particular area, as well as the governing council of a multiethnic town or village that included representatives of the towns main tathræ and was responsible for resolving disputes among them. In modern Kiravia, it is the typical name for the legislature of a municipality or countyship, e.g. Sarkirstuv Pontevedrá ("The Pontevedra City Commission"). Both traditional and modern kirstuvya have an odd number of members - usually five, seven, nine, or eleven - to limit the frequency of ties.
• Kolakoskem, Kotakoskem - n. People of mixed indigenous Cronite and Coscivian settler ancestry, as well as culturally Coscivised people of full indigenous ancestry. Used mainly in South Crona.
• kōsuv - n. Village, carrying the positive denotation of a small, close-knit settlement. Contrast dasa.
• krāstagisva - n. Trademark (literally "craftseal").
• Kūla - n. The Earth. Alternatively spelled Kyla.
• Kūlatæn - n. The second day of the traditional 8-day Coscivian week, also used as the translation for Tuesday. Literally "Earth day".

L

• lentun - n. System.
• léréstor - n. Development.
• lorya - n. Religion.
• loryavôntix - adj. Religiously-neutral, not endorsing a particular religion or favouring one religion over another. Most notably used in Article Ź of the Fundamental Statute of the Kiravian Federacy, which states: ārka é loryavôntix us helvikor patrá vús ávexix ("the state is religiously-neutral and liberty of worship shall be upheld by it"). Generally held to mean a condition of sectarian equality that allows for that does not preclude state support for religion in general. Distinguished from lāsgix ("secular"), dhiloryax ("non-religious") and gliloryax ("irreligious").
• lôstum - n. Broth.
• lōr - n. Beer.
• luer - n. Cattle.

M

• marka - Legislative act, e.g. the Submerged Lands Act (Marka Būfarahomá). Originally a Stairovix Coscivian word for oath or pledge, it was assigned the meaning of speech act in the High Coscivian writings of the philosopher Shafto and was later adopted into the titles of laws passed by the Imperial Stanora. Other legislatures in the Coscivian world emulated this practice, including the contemporary Federal Stanora and Kiravian state legislatures.
• marr - Unit of time defined as 1/20th of a day, about 72 standard minutes. Subdivided into 20 þórr, 400 uktuya, or 4,000 haka.
• mestiśuv - Person of mixed Kiravian and colonial native (e.g. Punthite) descent. From the Tryhstian mestiço.
• mulotra - Cremation
• mùgorix - adj. Dwarf, pygmy; whence mùgorikuv and mùgorihan, standard modern terms for the midget.

N

• nár - n. Mountain
• nāstrin - n. Quotient, proportion, share (i.e. of company stock), or serial number.
• norôn - n. Sleep

O

• Osidek- n. A Yonderian person; literally 'boner', in reference to Yonderian paleontologists who were highly active in Kiravia during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
• ostra - n. Politics
• okruv - n.
• ōrstava - n. In academia, an oral examination by a panel of ranking faculty for which an academic degree is awarded - it is the less common form of trua ('monstration'), the other being the amderen. In Scouting, a board of review for rank advancement.

P

• páska - n. Ocean. Compare ioskova.
• pelan - n. An area of farmland surrounding the built-up centre of a town or city and enclosed by its walls, or a town containing such an area. Commonly found in placenames, e.g. Férapelan.
• plátum n. Capital (economic)
• pláturisēn n. Capitalism
• Pávlopláturisēn n. Laissez-faire economics, from Pávlodarstra (Paulastra) + pláturisēn.
• portán - n. Crab, from Gaelic portán.
• práta - n. Potato, from Gaelic práta. Replaces ēln in many dialects.

R

• ralfruv - n. Drabbage; peculiar to the Southwestern Kiravic dialects.
• ram - n.
  • Brick (the construction unit or a similar dense rectangular object by analogy, i.e. of tea).
  • Block - any rectangular solid (pastaram - a dried instant noodle block), a city block, a spatial planning unit (e.g. ōrtrebiktorram resettlement blocks and lékrastaram development blocks in Mid-Atrassic Crona, ramtakta block settlements in Æonara and Atrassica), an urban housing tract, a high-density residential building (tower block) especially if public housing.
  • Bar, i.e. of Krasoa jade soap, precious metal, chocolate.
    

Etymologically related to gram.

• ramśek - n. Neighbourhood guy; from ram ('city block', 'housing tract') + -śek ('-ite', '-nik').
• raśga - n. Gender
• rona - n. Language
• ronadanrin - A group of closely related languages. Although it translates literally to "language family", its meaning differs from that of the English term language family: Whereas the English term is now most often applied to primary language families such as Indo-European or Cosco-Adratic, ronadarin refers to smaller clades, for example the Romance languages or Bantoid languages. Primary families are instead termed ronadóntra (see below).
• ronadóntra - Primary language family
• ruxbur - An eating utensil fashioned from or modelled after a sea urchin.
• rukuv - Bucket.

S

• sampakuv - n. Essentially kayak polo.
• sar - n. Town or city.
• Saron - n. The Moon. Natural sattelites of other planets are referred to as vrisdon.
• sporvulnar - n. Ceremonial rite where you go to your grandma's grave, light a shot of grain alcohol on fire, and then drink it while it's still lit.
• suluámakēlen - n. Incorporated business, literally "autonymous company". Common in corporate names, usually abbreviated to SAK.
• suarux - adj. Very few; specifically in a quantity less than or equal to three.

Ś

• śank - n. / int. Expletive similar to the English shit, though it has lost any semantic connexion to actual fæces and is used to derisively refer to any material, behaviour, or state of affairs.
• śetantra - n. Sport
• śmex - adj. / int. Used to express sarcastic interest or attraction towards something the speaker finds unappealing. Śmex is of interest to lexicographers for its obligate sarcastic usage.
• Śuktúv, Śuktuluv - n. Perjorative term for an indigenous Cronite; literally "cornhole", from śuk ("maize", from Papasimi chuqllu) + tuluv ("hole, pit"), referencing the centrality of maize to the diet of most Cronan peoples and intimating that Cronites are useless eaters.

T

• tola - n. Door
• terion - n. Record
• tuva - n. Endogamous social group typical of the structure of Coscivian cultures; variously translated as 'Kith', 'caste', 'community', 'ethnosocial group', 'Coscivian subgroup', or (historically) 'tribe'.

Th

• thansix - adj. Based.
• Thíarna - n. God, in a specifically Christian sense, as opposed to the more generic Saīon. From the Gaelic Thíarna, "Lord".
• thorn - n. Bridge. Common in placenames, such as Thortimur ("Bridgeport", from the genitive form thortisk)
• thramdastraterion - n. Household register. From thram ("house") + dastra ("select group, class") + terion ("record").

U

• Urom - n. Any of the tribally-organised non-Coscivian peoples of Great Kirav.
• ūmar - n. In Shaftonist colour theory, a hypothetical precursor to the colour red. Used in some ancient poetry to describe human hair colour and skin undertones.
• ūsa - n. Mystical universal energy in many Coscivian folk religious traditions, similar to chi. Ultimately derived from the Proto-Kasavic Wàz, a different but related concept from early Cosco-Adratic tribal beliefs.

V

• va - v. To do. Together with its corresponding verbal noun vara ('activity', 'action', 'behaviour'), it is among the most frequently used words in the language.
• valera - n. Province
• venta - n. Work, labour
• vektur - n. Executive (political or corporate), governor, director (corporate).
• vestra - n. Burgh, borough.
• vertha - n. Book
• viln - n. Wood.
• virsa - n. Order (as opposed to chaos), categorical hierarchy - a virtue in Shaftonist philosophy. Cosmos and natural order.
• volon - n. Troop, military formation
• vomor, vomra - n. Storm
• vośak - n. Horse.

X

• xistum - n. Ice. Common in placenames, e.g. Xistódarin.
• xîluv - n. A fraction equal to one four-hundredth; a currency subunit representing 0.0025 saar and a unit of time representing 0.0025 þórr.
• xolkriśgir - n. A culture-bound syndrome and related taboo concerning colour photography. Compound of xolkir ('colour') + iśgir ('fear'), calqueable as chromophobia.
• xóstrev - n. Collegial body, e.g. the Executive College (Vekturxóstrev) or the College of Cardinals (Devaépiskurxóstrev).
• xūron - n. King. From High Coscivian, originally referring to any sovereign monarch, and later as a subsidiary title of the Coscivian Emperor pertaining to several large divisions of the Empire, such as Xūron Antarisk ("King of the Antar Plateau"). During the Third Empire it also took on a technical legal meaning, referring to any ruler who enjoyed imperial immediacy regardless of their actual title and including elected rulers. It continues to be used as the generic translation for the titles of sovereign non-Coscivian monarchs.
• xuruv - n. Cloud

Y

• yakav - n. Member of the traditional village menial castes.
• yanx - adj. Low, e.g. Yanxikoskirona ('Low Coscivian'). Antonymous to ixtix.

See also

• List of ethnic slurs