The Vori language spoken by the Vori, when rendered through the universal translator, retained a distinct structure and used synonyms and metaphors for everyday words and with a military-oriented syntax.
Terms for an extended family used combinations of immediate family terms (i.e. mother's father rather than grandfather.) (VOY: "Nemesis")
Words and phrases[]
- Ally – friend
- Backwalk – back off / retreat ("it is sharper to backwalk")
- Beast – the face of the enemy; in addition, this word was used to imply that the enemy was completely immoral.
- Before – the past
- Blossoms – flowers
- Brightly – happily / cheerfully
- Clash – a war / a fight ("you've landed right in the middle of a clash")
- Cluster – to regroup ("it would be sharp to cluster with the others")
- Cluster mark – rendezvous point
- Colors – markings / uniform
- Cook – burn, cook, heat ("cooked by The Glare")
- Coverings – clothes ("they were his coverings")
- Crave – want ("do you crave any more?")
- Daughter's daughter – maternal granddaughter
- Defender – soldier
- Drill – teach ("Drill Chakotay to fire Vori arms.")
- Fast-walk – run / quick-march / rush ("they were fast-walked to the Extermination center")
- Fathom – to know / to understand / to think ("you don't fathom the Nemesis")
- Flame – to burn ("they flamed all our villages")
- Fleet colors – Starfleet uniform
- Footfalls – paces, a measure of distance
- Fullness – the whole story, summary of a situation
- The Glare – the Sun ("glimpse the glare")
- Glimpse – to see / an eye ("did you glimpse the Nemesis?"; "close your glimpses")
- Gloried – highly held / glorified / great
- Greeted – welcomed
- Grey – old (person) ("he's too grey to be of use")
- In the now – in the present
- Motherless – generic insult
- Mother's father – maternal grandfather
- Mother's mother – maternal grandmother
- Nemesis – enemy
- New-light – dawn
- Novice – rookie, a newly-trained soldier
- Nullify, nully – to kill / to be killed ("they were nullified")
- Plantings – crops / harvest ("they took our plantings" / "two plantings ago")
- Power – religious / god-concept ("We beg peace from the Power who made us Vori...")
- Rages – anger ("you turn your Trembles into Rages")
- Savory – tasty ("I'm afraid it's not very savory")
- Set loose – let go ( "Set my mother's father loose! Please! Let him loose!" )
- Sharp – clever / wise / smart / better ("it would be sharp to wait until new-light")
- Shroud – hide
- Signal – call / contact
- Sly – hide ("sly yourselves and fire back!")
- Soon-after – future ("In the soon-after, we'll send them flying from this sphere")
- Sphere – planet
- Sturdy – strong ("He's very gray, and his heart's not sturdy")
- Suffice – enough ("But does it suffice him to nullify you?")
- Tellings – words / knowledge; orders ("do my tellings")
- Tend – care for / protect
- Toiling – working
- The trembles – fear / cowardice ("you've got the trembles")
- Told – said ("well told, Novice.")
- Top – head ("keep your top low and your glimpses wide")
- Trunks – trees / woods ("we found him in the trunks")
- Upturned – a Vori burial disgrace, a body facing upwards after death so as to not go to the Way-after
- Way-after – the term for the Vori afterlife ("he's passed to the way-after")
- Wrestle – struggle against, overcome