Noldorin
herven
noun. husband
herven
noun. husband
Derivations
- ᴹ√KHER “rule, govern, possess” ✧ Ety/KHER
Elements
Word Gloss KHER “rule, govern, possess” benn “man, male, †husband” Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ᴹ√KHER > hervenn [kʰerbesno] > [xerbesno] > [xerbenno] > [xervenno] > [xervenn] > [hervenn] > [herven] ✧ Ety/KHER Variations
- hervenn ✧ Ety/BES; Ety/KHER
hervenn
noun. husband
hervenn
noun. husband
A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “husband”, a combination of ᴹ√KHER “govern” and N. benn “man” (which itself archaically meant “husband”), the latter element based on the root ᴹ√BES “wed” (Ety/BES, KHER).
Conceptual Development: In Early Noldorin Word-lists from the 1920s, “husband” was {gwidhion >>} ᴱN. gwedhion, based on the root ᴱ√wed- having to do with marriage (PE13/146). It has a negated form ᴱN. yrwidhion “without husband” (PE13/156). Another precursor was ᴱQ. heruvesto “lord husband” from Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, which was assembled from elements similar to N. hervenn, but in the Qenya branch of the language instead.
Neo-Sindarin: In later writings, Tolkien seems to have revised ᴹ√BES > √BER as the basis for marriage words (VT49/45). However, I prefer to retain the 1930s root ᴹ√BES and would therefore use hervenn for “husband” in Neo-Sindarin, though ᴺS. bethron “spouse (m.)” is an alternative.