> In a Native American language of California called Atsugewi (now extinct), if a tree was burned and we found the ashes in a creek afterward, we would have said that soot w’oqhputíc’tainto the creek. W’oqhputíc’ta is a conglomeration of bits that mean “it moved like dirt, in a falling fashion, into liquid, and for real.” In English, we would just say “flowed.”

I realized something like that in English when translating. The word "slay" means, according to a basic dictionary, to kill (violently). But to an English speaker it means much more. I wouldn't say that a school shooter slayed the children, rather shot. The Boston bomber didn't slay the runners, but rather bombed. I would consider slaying to be an act done by a sword. But, in the case of a terrorist stabbing people, I would call that a stabbing, not staying. I would say that slaying is only appropriate if the sword attack was going across a body and not directly into, like with stabbing.