cast

noun. cape, headland

cast

noun. cape, headland

cast

headland

cast (i gast, o chast) (cape), pl. caist (i chaist)

cast

headland

cast (i gast, o chast) (cape), pl. caist (i chaist);

cast

headland

(i gast, o chast) (cape), pl. caist (i chaist)

esgal

noun. cast shadow, shade; screen, hiding, veil, cast shadow, shade; screen, hiding; veil

A word meaning either “veil, screen, hiding” (Ety/SKAL¹; SA/esgal) or “a cast shadow” (PE17/184) derived from the root √SKAL “cover, veil”, most notably an element in the name Esgalduin (S/121) translated “River under Veil” (Ety/SKAL¹) or “River under Shade” (PE17/15, 184).

Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies of the 1930s esgal was translated “screen, hiding, roof of leaves”, but there it (and the river name) were from the Ilkorin language. In notes from around 1966-67, however, Tolkien shift the sense of the root, saying:

> √SKAL was applied to more opaque things that cut off light and cast shadows over other things ... √SPAN was applied to things of lighter texture, and corresponds closer to our “veil” ... They appear also to have differed in that while SKAL was primitively verbal SPAN was primitively nominal. Thus the most primitive derivative of SKAL was skalā and this meant the action or effect of overshadowing: a cast shadow, S esgal, Q †ixal & hala. But spanā meant a thing that veiled, a veil (PE17/184).

Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I think esgal can refer to both a shading screen (as it did in the 1930s) or the shadow under that screen (as it did in the 1960s), but it is unlikely that Tolkien himself maintained these two senses simultaneously. However, there are a number of other Sindarin good words for “shadow” but not many for “screen, veil”, especially since fân < ✶spanā or ✶phanā is used mainly with the sense “cloud”. However, I would limit esgal to genuinely opaque screens and curtains, ones that block most if not all light, and for a diaphanous veil I’d use fân.

esgal

a cast shadow

_n. _a cast shadow. Q. hala, poet. ixal. . This gloss was rejected.

morchant

noun. shadow cast by light, (lit.) dark shape

A word for “the shadows of actual objects or persons cast by sun or moon or other lights” attested only in its plural form morchaint (VT42/9), a combination of mor- “dark” and cant “shape” as suggested by Carl Hostetter (VT42/28 note #18).

rast

cape

(geographic) 1) rast (also shortened ras), pl. raist, idh raist, 2) (of land) bund (i mund, o mbund, construct mun) (snout, nose), pl. bynd (i mbynd), #cast (i gast, o chast) (headland), pl. caist (i chaist) (VT42:14; compare the name Angast)

rast

cape

(also shortened ras), pl. raist, idh raist

dae

noun. shadow, shadow (cast by an object or form), [N.] shade

morchant

noun. shadow (of objects, cast by light), dark shape

hant

noun. throw, cast; turn or move in games

bund

cape

(i mund, o mbund, construct mun) (snout, nose), pl. bynd (i mbynd), #cast (i gast, o chast) (headland), pl. caist (i chaist) (VT42:14; compare the name Angast)

ness

noun. headland, *headland; [G.] (water) meadow; long grass

An element appearing in the name Taras-ness for the headlands below the mountain Taras (UT/28), a promonotory sticking out over the water. The actual meaning of ness is unclear.

Conceptual Development: Superficially this word resembles G. ness “water meadow; long grass” from the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/60) which was probably a derivative of the early root ᴱ√NESE “give to feed; feed, pasture; graze” (QL/66). Given its Early Qenya cognate ᴱQ. nesse “(green) fodder, herb, grass”, it is likely that “long grass” is the original sense of G. ness, and “water meadow” is an extrapolated meaning.

Neo-Sindarin: If the headland of Taras-ness was used for grazing, the two words might still be related. I would thus retain the Gnomish meanings “meadow; long grass” for this Sindarin word, since we have no other good “meadow” word in Sindarin.