So I was watching this episode of DS9 where Dr. Brashir is whining about the fact he was salutatorian rather than valedictorian at Starfleet Medical (because, as revealed in another episode, he deliberately missed a question on a test [because, as revealed in yet another episode, he is a genetically modified human who didn’t want to blow his cover]).
And I get to thinking about the word valedictorian.
Obvious Latin roots.
Looks like it has the roots to mean "farewell" and "to speak" in it.
And, indeed, it does.
Latin: valedicere = vale (farewell) + dicere (to speak); to bid farewell.
A valedictory is thus a "farewell speech" and a valedictorian is the person who gives it at a commencement, usually the highest scoring student.
Then I started thinking about the word vale.
Where does it come from? Looks like an imperative form of valere. But what does valere mean?
"To be strong, to be powerful, to be healthy, to prevail, to succeed."
To succeed?
So "Vale!" might be translated as "Succeed!"
That’s (more or less) what Klingons say to bid each other as a farewell: Qapla’!
I wonder if on Qo’noS they call valedictory a Qapla’SoQ? (Qapla’ = success + SoQ = speech).
Probably the most combat-proficient student gets to give it.
Brashir thinks he’s got it bad… I was all set to be valedictorian of my high school class until some chick moved in from another town and stole my class rank. 🙁
On the bright side, we’ve been going out for a year now. 🙂
On an unrelated note, I never watched Star Trek that much, but I knew what “Qapla'” means because I messed around with the Klingon Language software once upon a time. I got a kick out of it when the instructor patiently explained to me that while (some word) is an expression of respect and loyalty to the captain, (some other word pronounced exactly the same to my hearing) means you wish death upon him and his household and his race.
Doesn`t matter what you say, but how…!! But you said it well http://free-gay-boys.jimka-mmsa.com