gar-

verb. to hold, have, to hold, have, *possess

A verb appearing as garo with 1st. sg. gerin “I hold, have” in The Etymologies from around 1937 under on the root ᴹ√GAR of similar meaning (Ety/ƷAR|GAR). The root ᴹ√GAR went through a number of revisions, and the verb’s glosses were altered from gar- “hold, possess” (Ety/GAR) >> garo “hold, keep” (EtyAC/GAR) >> garo “hold, have”.

Neo-Sindarin: I would use this as the main Sindarin verb for “to have” with additional senses “hold” and “possess”. For “to keep” I would instead use heb-.

Conceptual Development: A possible precursors from the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s was G. {gaira- >>} guira- “possess” (GL/43), G. {gatha- >>} gôtha- “possess, have, hold” with variant gai (GL/42), and [rejected] fâ- “have, hold, possess” (GL/33). The unrejected verbs guira- and gôtha- were related, and the latter was derived from ᴱ✶ı̯otta {<< ᴱ✶ı̯atta} and had an irregular past form gui derived from ✶ı̯ōı̯ē {<< ᴱ✶ı̯āı̯ē}.

The verb gar also appeared in the 1936 phrase lheben teil brann i annon ar neledh neledhi gar godrebh “five foot high the door and three may walk abreast”, but its exact function is unclear; see that entry for details.