gôn

noun. stone (a stone or a single thing made of stone)

A word mentioned in notes from the late 1950s, as contrasted with S. gond “stone”:

> Sindarin had a short form gŏn- < ✶PQ gōn, gon-, stone, a stone, or a single thing made of stone, as dist[inct] from gondō, stone — general as a substance or material (PE17/28).

Tolkien also mentioned it in his Nomenclature of the Lord of the Rings, saying “in Sindarin the shorter gon- was used for smaller objects made of stone, especially carved figures” (RC/347). In notes on the Common Eldarin Article (CEA) from 1969, Tolkien had gôn with plural form i·ñ(g)uin “stones” (PE23/139). In that document Tolkien revised {gond >>} gôn, but I believe this was because he realized gond was a mass noun that would not have a proper plural, and changed to the “short form” gôn to illustrate plural mutations.

As such, I think Tolkien intended gôn and gond to co-exist, with gôn being an individual stone or a (small) single thing made of stone, while gond was “stone” as a mass noun, for stone as a material, a body of rock, or stone as an abstraction.

gond

stone

_n. _stone, rock. Archaic S. gond > gonn. Q. ondo. >> Gondor

gond

noun. great stone, rock

gondren

adjective. (made) of stone

gôn

stone

(i ’ôn, construct gon); pl. gŷn, coll. pl. #gonath as in Argonath.

gond

stone

(i ’ond, construct gon) (great stone or rock), pl. gynd (i ngynd = i ñynd), coll. pl. gonnath (Letters:410).

gonhir

master of stone

(i ’Onhir), no distinct pl. form except with article (i Ngonhir = i Ñonhir), maybe primarily used as a coll. pl. Gonhirrim  (WJ:205, there spelt ”Gonnhirrim”)

gondrath

street of stone

(i ’ondrath) (causeway, raised stone highway), pl. gendraith (i ngendraith = i ñendraith). Archaic pl. göndreith. (WJ:340)

gondren

made of stone, stony

(stony), lenited ’ondren, pl. gendrin. Archaic pl. göndrin (TI:270).

sarn

stone

1) (small stone, or stone as material) sarn (i harn, o sarn), pl. sern (i sern); also used as adj. ”stony, made of stone”. 2) gôn (i **ôn, construct gon); pl. gŷn, coll. pl. #**gonath as in Argonath. 3) (larger stone) gond (i **ond, construct gon) (great stone or rock), pl. gynd (i ngynd = i ñynd), coll. pl. gonnath** (Letters:410).

sarn

noun. stone (as a material)

Sern in UT/463 is a misprint, see VT/42:11

sarn

noun. small stone

Sern in UT/463 is a misprint, see VT/42:11

sarn

stone

(i harn, o sarn), pl. sern (i sern); also used as adj. ”stony, made of stone”.

sarn

made of stone, stony

(lenited harn; pl. sern); also used as noun ”small stone, pebble, stone [as material]”; as adj. also = ”stony”.