Definition of martiana

(Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land....)

The word `` church '' which turned_up over_and_over_again among Jubal 's words gave him knotty difficulty ; there was no Martian concept to match it - unless one took `` church '' and `` worship '' and `` God '' and `` congregation '' and many other words and equated them to the totality of the only world he had known during growing waiting & & & then forced the concept back into English in_that phrase which had been rejected ( by each differently ) by Jubal , by Mahmoud , by Digby .

He was closer to understanding it in English now , although it could never have the inevitability of the Martian concept it stood_for .

In his mind he spoke simultaneously the English sentence and the Martian word and felt closer grokking .

Their meditations were approaching a violent cusp that would shape Martian art for many millennia .