A word for “man” as a male person, attested only as an element in compounds or as (archaic?) ndir (PE17/60). This word likely refers to male individuals of all races including Elves, Men, Dwarves and so forth, much like its Quenya cognate Q. nér. This word must have been derived from the primitive subjective form ✶ndēr of the root √N(D)ER “male person”, where the ancient long ē became ī, and the initial cluster nd- became d-, though the ancient cluster would still be reflected in mutated forms, such as in i nîr “the man” rather than ✱✱i dhîr.
Conceptual Development: Perhaps the earliest precursor to this word is (archaic) G. †drio “hero, warrior” with variants driw, driodweg and driothweg, a cognate of ᴱQ. nēr (GL/22). This Gnomish word was derived from primitive ᴱ✶n’reu̯, where the initial nr- became dr-. At this early stage, the root was unstrengthened ᴱ√NERE (QL/65), as reflected in (archaic) ᴱN. nîr “hero, prince, warrior-elf” in the Early Noldorin Dictionary of the 1920s (PE13/164).
In The Etymologies of the 1930s the root became ᴹ√DER “adult male, man” of any speaking race and the derived form was N. dîr (Ety/DER). However, in this document Tolkien said:
> EN †dîr surviving chiefly in proper names (as Diriel older Dirghel [GYEL], Haldir, Brandir) and as agental ending (as ceredir “doer, maker”) ... In ordinary use EN has benn [for “man”] (properly = “husband”).
Thus in the scenario described in The Etymologies, dîr “man” was archaic and used only as an element in names or as a suffix. In ordinary speech it was replaced by N. benn, which used to mean “husband” but now meant “man”, while the word for “husband” became N. hervenn (Ety/BES). It is unlikely Tolkien imagined this exact scenario in later Sindarin, however, since the 1930s root for benn was ᴹ√BES “wed”, but by the 1960s the root for husband/wife/marry words had become √BER.
Neo-Sindarin: Since the status of N. benn is questionable given ᴹ√BES >> √BER, many Neo-Sindarin writers prefer to use S. ✱dîr as the Sindarin word for man. I am of the opinion that both dîr and benn are acceptable for “man, male person”. This is because I prefer to retain ᴹ√BES as the root for “marry, wed”, since it is the best basis for attested husband/wife words in (Neo) Sindarin.
An adjective glossed “hard, difficult” in Definitive Linguistic Notes (DLN) from 1959 derived from the root {√DIR >>} √DER of similar meaning (PE17/154). The primitive form was {✶dīrā >>} ✶dērā where [after the change to the root], the [[s|ancient long [ē] became [ī]]] as usual in Sindarin. This word clashes with dîr “man”, but can be distinguished because (a) it is an adjective rather than a noun and (b) its mutations are different, because dîr “man” is from ancient nd- while dîr “difficult” is from ancient d-, as in i nîr dhîr “the difficult man, (lit.) the man difficult”.
Tolkien gave one example of this prefix’s use in dirbedui “hard to utter, difficult to pronounce”. In its prefixal use, Tolkien glossed it as “tough (for lesser efforts)”, contrasting it with gor- “difficult (of things very painful and horrible to do)”; see that entry for discussion.
Neo-Sindarin: I believe that the adjective dîr has the connotation “difficult due to the complexity of the task”. It can be contrasted with rhanc, which I use to mean “difficult due to some resistance or obstacle” for purposes of Neo-Sindarin; compare Q. hranga- “thwart”.
Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had similar-seeming G. diriol “tedious”, but that was based G. dîr “long (of time)” so was unlikely to be related conceptually (GL/30). In Gnomish Lexicon Slips modifying that document Tolkien considered the form duiriol “tedious” before reverting back to diriol (PE13/112), and there was no sign of this word thereafter except for its possible reemergence as dîr “difficult”.