dadben

adverb/adjective. downhill, inclined, prone, downhill, inclined; [ᴱN.] (figuratively) easy-going, easy, not arduous; prone

A word for “downhill, inclined, prone” in The Etymologies of the 1930s as a combination of N. dad “down” and N. penn “declivity, ✱slope”, with the forms dadben and dadbenn where the double nn was probably archaic (Ety/DAT, PEN).

Conceptual Development: The Etymologies also had (rejected) dadðenn, dadhenn based on an earlier meaning “hillside, slope” of the root ᴹ√DEN (Ety/DEN; EtyAC/DAT), and earlier still a form dadvenn based on a rejected root ᴹ√BEND (EtyAC/DAT). Early Noldorin word-lists of the 1920s also had ᴱN. dadvenn “downhill” with an archaic form {datvhend >>} datbhend (PE13/139, 160-161). In one entry it had the figurative meaning “easy-going, easy, not arduous” (PE13/161), comparable to the English idiom “it’s all downhill from here”.

Neo-Sindarin: I’d adopt the later form dadben as an adjective and adverb for “downhill, inclined [downwards]”, but I would not use it for “prone” in its modern English sense “lying flat”, since I believe Tolkien intended this gloss to be for its archaic English sense of sloping downwards. I would, however, assume the Early Noldorin sense “easy-going, easy, not arduous” remains valid as a figure of speech.

dadben

adverb. downhill, inclined

dadben

adverb. inclined, prone (to do something)

dadbenn

adverb. downhill, inclined

dadbenn

adverb. inclined, prone (to do something)

dadbenn

adjective. downhill