moku
Pronunciation | /ˈmo |
---|---|
Usage | 2023: Core (100% → )2022: Core (100%) |
Book and era | nimi pu |
Part of speech | Content word |
Codepoint | U+F1936 |
moku is a core content word relating to consumption and fuel.
Etymology
The word moku is derived from Japanese モグモグ (mogumogu), an onomatopoeic word meaning "chewing".[1]
Semantic space
The semantic space of moku includes consumption. It most often refers to eating or drinking, but can also include breathing and other routes of administration such as injections.[2][3]
mi moku e kilimi moku e kili.
I eat a fruit.
The word moku implies the presence of a fuel or a similar resource by analogy. For example, learning may be expressed metaphorically as "to consume knowledge".
Often, moku also implies the depletion of the direct object, similarly to how English frames corrosion and erosion as "eating away at" or "eating through" something.
seli li moku e kasiseli li moku e kasi.
Fire "eats up" wood.
moku can also refer to food itself, especially in the role of a noun.
moku ni li tawa tenpo kulupumoku ni li tawa tenpo kulupu.
This food is for the gathering.
As in the "fuel" examples, this sense can be extended to any substance fit for consumption in a given context, even if it would not literally be considered eating.
When used as an intransitive verb, moku may mean both "to consume" and "to be food". One strategy to combat ambiguity in this case is adding a direct object. However, according to the monsutatesu, this may be ambiguous in a different manner, as it could either refer to consuming or feeding something.
pu
In the "Official Toki Pona Dictionary" section, the book Toki Pona: The Language of Good defines moku as:
VERB to eat, drink, consume, swallow, ingest
ku
For Toki Pona Dictionary, respondents in ma pona pi toki pona translated these English words as moku:[4]
food5, absorb2 , drink2 , lunch2, eat5 , eating5 , consume5 , dining5 , meal5 , consumption5 , swallow4 , dinner3 , nutrition3 , drinking3 , chew3 , groceries3
sitelen pona
The sitelen pona glyph for moku () is derived from a mouth radical above a hand radical, depicting a hand bringing food to the mouth. These may be drawn either separated (as in Toki Pona: The Language of Good) or connected.
sitelen sitelen
See also
References
- ↑ "Word Origins". tokipona.org. Archived from the original on 8 August 2002.
- ↑ laso Alison [@withonel]. (3 January 2023). [Informal poll posted in the
#sona-kulupu
channel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. "A nurse gives medicine to another person by intravenous route. Does the second person moku the medicine?".Are injections (given by a different person) included in the semantic space of moku? Option Votes Yes 48 No 32 - ↑ laso Alison [@withonel]. (3 January 2023). [Informal poll posted in the
#sona-kulupu
channel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. "If I give myself an injection, do I moku?".Are injections (given by oneself) included in the semantic space of moku? Option Votes Yes 52 No 24 - ↑ Lang, Sonja. (18 July 2021). Toki Pona Dictionary. Illustrated by Vacon Sartirani. Tawhid. ISBN 978-0978292362. pp. 286–287.
Further reading
- "moku" on lipu Linku
- "moku" on lipu Wikipesija
- "moku" on English Wiktionary