kom
/ko
, pro.you (nonemphatic, plural).
ko
a
ko
ko
mo
er
ker
e
ko
mla
Examples:
> You're like the terriid bird which stays among the taro plants but goes hungry (i.e. you're surrounded by girls but can't make it with any of them).
> Droteo and Toki are quite close or always doing things together.
> My throat feels sore.
> Have you walked on the floor of the ocean?
> This looks empty.
Proverbs:
> Like Kerosene, poling his canoe with no obvious destination
Under the German administrator Winkler before World War I, a Palauan named Ngirakerisil (Mr. Kerosene) was employed as a canoe operator. Daily he would take the tireless administrator to a different part of Palau to inspect the various economic programs (largely coconut planting) instituted by the now legendary Winkler. The operator, least of all, could predict where they would be going next. The idiom is applied to any aimless person or action; indecision; a changeable person.
> A male child, though small, is yet like a small barracuda that braces against the flowing stream.
The small barracuda (mersaod, a small ai) can be seen bracing, without apparent motion, against the stream, usually where fresh water flows into the lagoon, or where tide water runs off the reef, until suddenly it dashes into the stream to grab a small fish. Then it retreats once more to its place of watchfulness. This watchful, quiet, reserved, almost crafty approach to life is much admired, and parents will encourage their male children with this saying.
> Like coconut syrup.
A general reference to incestuous relations. That this is a recent idiom, probably first used during the period of Japanese administration, is suggested by the Japanese word "ameyu," used in Palau to mean coconut syrup. The incident from which the idiom derives is said to be one in which a Palauan coconut-syrup maker had relations with his wife's sister.
> You're like sardines, very many but only enough for one wrapped piece of fish.
Fish are properly wrapped individually in a leaf for cooking, but sardines are so small that a bunch of them may be wrapped together to make up only one small bundle. The idiom may be applied to a numerous but weak enemy or to a clan that is large but ineffective as in raising money for its members, or for a large group of workers who do not accomplish very much.
> Like a pigeon-seeing the danger, yet it flies from cover
The pigeon sits quietly concealed until some threat appears, then it flies out, revealing itself. The idiom applies to a person who unnecessarily exposes himself to danger, leaves the house in the rain, or takes a boat out in a storm.
More Examples:
> Have you all agreed what we will be doing tomorrow?
> We were walking fine on the road until a really fast car sped by that abruptly forced us into a ditch.
> No. He or she only feels dizzy.
> Excluding Ulang seems excessive.
> Do you want to have lunch or dinner sometime?

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