The word Qom literally means "experience a tremor" or, using an old Terran phrase, "experience an earthquake." The word is used in its slang sense of "perilous, treacherous" when applied to a mission or voyage. For example, Qom Qu' (literally, "The mission experiences a tremor") means "The mission is perilous." Likewise, Qom He (literally, "The route experiences a tremor") generally means "The route is treacherous," implying that the journey is treacherous. The word can also be applied to the state of a structure or a vessel following a disastrous encounter, though in this case the verb usually takes the perfective suffix -pu', indicating that the action has been completed. Thus, Qompu' Duj (literally, "The ship has experienced a tremor") may be used to mean "The ship is hazardous, has been left in a hazardous condition." The fact that in the Krotmag dialect the word Qob ("be dangerous") would be pronounced Qom is probably not unrelated to the origin of the idiomatic usage of Qom, though the basic meaning of Qom itself certainly carries with it the notion of potential danger. Note that despite its slang meaning of "be hazardous, treacherous," the way the verb is used grammatically is based on its standard, literal sense. That is, while it is acceptable to say He Qob ("dangerous route"), using Qob ("be dangerous") adjectivally, it is ungrammatical to say He Qom for ("perilous route"). The verb Qom still means "experience a tremor" and must be used in a grammatical structure appropriate to that meaning.