# some Hindi, some Hebrew

*The Whorl list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 04 Dec 2001*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1493>

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### mark millman
*04 Dec 2001, 15:27*

"Choora" is a specific word for a type of Afghan military 
knife, from the region around the Khyber Pass, meant to 
pierce mail armor; it's single-edged, sharply tapered, and 
has a reinforced spine. 

I don't have any idea of what "gaon" might mean in Hin-
di; but I wonder if it mightn't have suggested itself to 
Wolfe through the association with the Hebrew word 
"gaon", genius (in the sense of a remarkable intellect, not 
spirit, as in the Latin _genius loci_).  The word is proba-
bly best known to English-speakers as the epithet of 
the eighteenth-century Rabbi Eliyahu (Elijah ben Solomon 
Zalman) of Vilnius, who was known as the Vilna Gaon. 

Nacre

> At 06:10 AM 12/3/2001 -0800, alga wrote:
> Eule wrote:

>> Hindu----not so sure about the 
>> accuracy but fwiw:
>> choora - four (the Rajan's knife)

> I can count to ten in Hindi--though I need 
> a jog to get started. Choora is not four.
> 
> [snip]

>> gaon - knowledge understanding knowing

> [snip]
> 
> -alga

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### matthew.malthouse
*10 Dec 2001, 12:33 · follows mark millman*

> On 04/12/2001 15:27:53 mark millman wrote:
> "Choora" is a specific word for a type of Afghan military
> knife, from the region around the Khyber Pass, meant to
> pierce mail armor; it's single-edged, sharply tapered, and
> has a reinforced spine.

Makes me think Thrax...   :-)


Matthew

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