Sindarin
ithil
noun. Moon
Cognates
- Q. Isil “Moon, (lit.) Sheen” ✧ Let/425; LotR/1114; PE17/039; PE17/121; SA/sil
Derivations
- √THIL “shine silver; white light” ✧ Let/425; SA/sil
Element in
- S. ir Ithil ammen Eruchín “*when the Moon, for us, the Children of God” ✧ LB/354
- S. Ithilbor “*Moon-fist”
- S. ithildin “magical alloy that glows in moonlight, (lit.) moon-star” ✧ PE17/039; PE17/039
- S. Ithilien “Land of the Moon” ✧ SA/sil
- S. Minas Ithil “Tower of the (Rising) Moon” ✧ SA/sil
- S. Orithil “*Moon-day, Monday”
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √THIL > Ithil [itʰil] > [iθil] ✧ Let/425 √thil- > Ithil [itʰil] > [iθil] ✧ SA/sil
ithil
noun. Moon
ithil
noun. the (full) Moon, lit. 'The Sheen'
mithril
noun. Moria-silver, true-silver
Elements
Word Gloss mith “grey, light grey, pale grey” RIL “brilliant (light), brilliance, brilliant (light), brilliance, [ᴹ√] glitter” Variations
- Mithril ✧ LotRI/Mithril; RSI/Mithril
ithil
moon
1) Ithil (= ”the sheen”); 2) (apparently also used = ”month”) raun (pl. roen, idh roen), coll. pl. ronath. Cf. the ending -ron at the end of month-names. Raun is basically the adj. ”straying, wandering” used as a noun, hence identifying the Moon as ”the Wanderer”. The ”Noldorin” form rhân presupposes a different primitive form and may not correspond to S *rân as would normally be supposed.
ithil
sheen
(The Sheen, name of the Moon) Ithil
ithil
sheen
ithil
moon
(= ”the sheen”)
raun
noun. Moon
A word for “moon”, equivalent of Q. Rána, attested in later writings only as the element -rawn in the archaic form S. †cýrawn “new-moon”, in modern speech cýron (VT48/7). Based on its use in this word, as well as in N. cúran “crescent moon” [ᴺS. cúron], it seems this is the ordinary word for “Moon” (or “moon”) as a celestial body, as opposed to S. Ithil which is the proper name of the moon, equivalent to English “Luna”. Raun is derived from primitive ✶rānā from the root √RAN “wander”, and hence originally meant something like “Wanderer”, though its Quenya equivalent is usually translated “Wayward”.
Conceptual Development: A very similar form G. Rân “the moon” appeared in Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/64), as well as ᴱN. rán “moon” in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s (PE13/152), though in this period its etymology is unclear. It appeared as N. Rhân “Moon” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, derived from the root ᴹ√RAN “wander, stray” (Ety/RAN), but in this period its Quenya equivalent was ᴹQ. Rana with short a. In later writings the Quenya form became Q. Rána, requiring a change to S. Raun since ancient ā became au in Sindarin.
Cognates
- Q. Rána “Moon, (lit.) Wayward”
Derivations
Element in
Variations
- rawn ✧ VT48/07 (rawn)
cýrawn
noun. new moon
cýron
noun. new moon
raun
moon
(pl. roen, idh roen), coll. pl. ronath. Cf. the ending -ron at the end of month-names. Raun is basically the adj. ”straying, wandering” used as a noun, hence identifying the Moon as ”the Wanderer”. – The ”Noldorin” form rhân presupposes a different primitive form and may not correspond to S ✱rân as would normally be supposed.
The usual name for the Moon in Sindarin, from an augmented form of the root √THIL (Let/425; Ety/THIL). This word is most likely the proper name of the Moon, analogous to English “Luna”: in The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien indicated Ithil was a “poetic name”. Compare this to S. Raun “Wanderer”, which is more descriptive of the nature of the body and hence closer to “Moon” (and “moon”).
Conceptual Development: The first precursor to this name seems to be G. Thilim “Moon” in an early list of names (PE14/13). This became G. {Thil >>} Sil “Rose of Silpion, Moon” (GL/67, 72) and G. {Thilmos >>} Silma in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/33, 67), both derivatives of the early root ᴱ√SILI as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (LT1A/Sil). The name Ithil first appeared in early versions of the tales of Númenor from the 1930s (LR/41).