ness

noun. headland, *headland; [G.] (water) meadow; long grass

An element appearing in the name Taras-ness for the headlands below the mountain Taras (UT/28), a promonotory sticking out over the water. The actual meaning of ness is unclear.

Conceptual Development: Superficially this word resembles G. ness “water meadow; long grass” from the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/60) which was probably a derivative of the early root ᴱ√NESE “give to feed; feed, pasture; graze” (QL/66). Given its Early Qenya cognate ᴱQ. nesse “(green) fodder, herb, grass”, it is likely that “long grass” is the original sense of G. ness, and “water meadow” is an extrapolated meaning.

Neo-Sindarin: If the headland of Taras-ness was used for grazing, the two words might still be related. I would thus retain the Gnomish meanings “meadow; long grass” for this Sindarin word, since we have no other good “meadow” word in Sindarin.

taras-ness

place name. headland below Taras

The headlands below mount Taras (UT/28), a combination of the mountains’s name with ness “headland”.

môr

noun. dark(ness); †night, dark(ness); †night, [N.] †black

A word for “dark(ness)” (Let/382), sometimes used poetically for “†night” (NM/279), derived from primitive ✶mori based on the root √MOR.

Conceptual Development: Early precursors to this word include G. mûri “darkness, †night” and G. morth/moroth “darkness” (GL/58), both clearly derived from the early root ᴱ√MORO as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (LT1A/Mornië; Moru). In The Etymologies of the 1930s N. †môr was an archaic equivalent of ᴹQ. more “black”, already based on primitive ᴹ✶mori (Ety/MOR). In a deleted entry Tolkien also considered using N. môr for “night” (EtyAC/LOƷ).

Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would mainly use S. môr as a noun “darkness”, and for the adjective I would use S. morn “dark, black”.

mîdh

noun. dew, dew, *moisture, damp(ness); [ᴱN.] mist, drizzle

A Sindarin word for “dew” given as míð in the Outline of Phonology (OP2) from the 1950s as a derivative of ✶mizdē “drizzle” (PE19/101), illustrating how [[os|[z] vanished before [d] lengthening preceding vowel]] in (Old) Sindarin.

Conceptual Development: N. mîdh “dew” also appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s, already with the same derivation as given above (Ety/MIZD), though Tolkien first wrote its gloss as “fine rain” (EtyAC/MIZD). This deleted gloss seems to be a remnant of ᴱN. midh “mist, drizzle” from Early Noldorin Word-lists, but there its primitive form was ᴱ✶míye (PE13/150).

Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would extend the meaning of this word to include “✱moisture, damp(ness)” in general, especially as the result of a previous rain.

ivanneth

noun. September, *Yavanna-ness

lothron

noun. May, *Flower-ness

@@@ GS/363 raun

cast

headland

cast (i gast, o chast) (cape), pl. caist (i chaist)

cast

headland

cast (i gast, o chast) (cape), pl. caist (i chaist);

cast

headland

(i gast, o chast) (cape), pl. caist (i chaist)