Noun
English: a stuck person (slang), ditherer (slang), confused prisoner (slang), mixed-up prisoner (slang)
Source: qepHom 2022
Category: job/vocation/avocation/person descriptor
KLCP Level: 3
Notes
We know that the word jav is a slang expression for "prisoner." Maltz said that this word is found in another slang expression:
jav mIS
literally "confused prisoner" or "mixed-up prisoner."
literally "confused prisoner" or "mixed-up prisoner."
This is used to refer to somebody who's in a bind, in a situation they're not quite sure how to get out of. Maybe all of the choices are bad or the information available is conflicting. Maybe they don't know which way to turn and they keep changing their mind. But they can't do nothing. The situation is such that they need to make a choice. Maltz said that's why the expression is about a prisoner: The person referred to by the expression is stuck, as if in prison, until a decision is made.
One of the situations in which this might come up is when playing a game and, as a result of something that happens during the game, a player has to decide what to do - and maybe it's not an easy decision. If they don't decide reasonably quickly, the other player(s) may become impatient and call the ditherer a jav mIS.
Somehow or other, some Klingons started using jva (in pIqaD, of course) as a way to write jav mIS - mixing up the letters of jav to create some kind of shorthand or abbreviation. (This is for writing only - one would pronounce written jva as jav mIS, not jva, whatever that might sound like.)
Maltz says he's seen it in messages, but he's never seen it on a die. On the other hand, since a roll of the dice may put one in the position of a jav mIS, he thought "mixed-up six" was a good pun. Maybe your dice were
manufactured for a game in which rolling a six always entails a tricky choice.
In any case, Maltz thought it was funny.
Usage for jva
There is no usage for this word in the database.
