kif
Keywords: tools, machinery, torture, violence
| Pronunciation (IPA): | kif |
|---|---|
| Part of Speech: | term verb noun |
| Class: | skurun |
| Forms: | kif, kifys, kifkas, kifcas, kifysyn, rokíf, rokífys |
| Glosses: | break, broken, malfunction, rickety, breakable, fragile, prone to break, (very) tired, injure, injured, wound, damage, breakdown, inefficiency, corruption, corrupt |
Description:
The term 'kif' refers to breaking, not necessarily in the sense of physically falling apart, which is more likely to use 'hik', but in the sense of having an internal break, or more specifically, something losing its function while retaining its form and identity.
Verb:
As a verb, 'kif' is a transitive skurun verb with an ergative breaker an an absolutive thing broken. When applied to a person, it means to break them mentally and or physically and may be used in the context of violence or torture. It can also mean to injure or to wound. When used to apply to an animal, it can have the same idiomatic meaning of domestication that it does in English. The usual sense is to damage a thing with a function so that it no longer properly performs that function, which is distinct from the shattering and loss of form implied by 'hik'.
The antipassive form has an idiomatic reflexive sense, as do many Common antipassives, and is a somewhat slangy expression being to be very tired, or to work yourself too hard.
The 'rokíf' form is intensified and means something like 'breakdown'.
Noun:
As a noun, 'kif' refers to an injury or wound, or damage when talking about a thing. The abstratified form 'kifysyn' can be used to mean 'malfunction', especially when talking about it in a general sense, or can be used to refer to inefficiency or corruption.
The 'rokíf' form is intensified and means something like 'breakdown'.
Modifier:
The modifier form 'kifys' is hard to directly translate. The closest translation might be 'fragile', in the sense of 'prone to break', but it can also refer to situations. When referring to a game mechanic, it would have the sense of producing unbalanced results outside the intended design of the game. In the sense of public administration it has a sense of inefficient or corrupt. It could also have the sense of broken or destructive, but those senses are more likely to be rendered with the forms 'kifkas' and a'kifcas', respectively.
The 'rokífys' form is intensified and means something like 'broken down'.