Hat-pãy zhorounk
literally means to rub away or wear out one’s hands and feet. The phrase is used to portray the dedicated hard work and intense labour one may have to go through for a relatively long period of time in order to further a particular cause like bringing up children or building up an organization.
The word zhorounk
brings to mind the rubbing of a herbal root on a grinding stone with a spoonful of water to produce a little concoction, resulting in a sizable reduction in the size of the root. The focus is, of course, on the root that wears away and is thus sacrificed for a cause. However, zhorounk can refer to any type of rubbing away.
Zhorounk is a transitive verb and a causative one, since it refers to someone causing his hands and feet to wear away. The corresponding intransitive verb is zhoronk
as, for instance in the sentence, hi suri zhorona
(this knife doesn’t wear out).
Example: Tinnem hat pãy zhoroun apleam bhurgeank vaddoilim
= She slogged and raised her children.