HoS; 'Iw rur

strong as blood KGT

ghIq HoSHa'choHpu' moratlh

And Morath's strength was gone PB

vaj ruS cher 'Iw rap cha' ghot HoS rap cha' ghot vuD chen yIn ruS

So the bond was sealed in blood of two equal in body and thought, the bond of life. PB

tlhIngan yoH HoS verengan yoH puj

The Klingon is braver than the Ferengi (slang) KGT

tlhIngan yoH HoS Hoch yoH puj

Klingons are the bravest of all (slang) KGT

tlhIngan HoS law' 'Iw HoS law'

the Klingon is as strong as blood (HQ 13.1:10)

st.klingon (6/1997): I don't think it's necessarily the case that, for example, the verb HoS "be strong" is being used as a noun (meaning strength). By the same token, I don't think it's the case that the noun HoS "strength" is being used as a verb (meaning be strong). This may be what happened historically (that is, in an older stage of the Klingon language, there may have been a verb HoS which people started using as a noun, or there may have been a noun HoS which people started using as a verb), but, right now, all we can say is that there is a pair of words. We don't know which developed from which (or if either or both developed form something else).

SEE ALSO:

HoS strength, energy, power (n)
qu' be fierce (v)
rach fortify, strengthen (v)
Dun be wonderful/great (v)
pov be excellent (v)
qu' be great/wonderful/excellent/superlative/splendid (v; slang)
puj be weak (v)

"Do you know why we are so strong? Because we are a unit. Each of us is part of a greater whole." (Kor, TOS "Errand of Mercy")

Cf. John Ford's Klingon proverb: "If there are gods, they do not help, and justice belongs to the strong: but know that all things done before the naked stars are remembered." (TFR [1984], p. 23 et passim)

Literally "strength"