nîlu

noun. moon

A noun translated as “moon” and fully declined as an example of a Strong II noun (SD/431). It appears with both a short and long final -u, but Tolkien indicated that the form with long û is actually the personified form Nîlû “Man in the Moon” (SD/426), perhaps the Adûnaic name of Tilion. Tolkien also listed the “later forms Nil, Njūl” (SD/306), one of which may be the Westron word for “moon”, most likely Wes. nil. Andreas Moehn suggested (EotAL/NUL) that this noun may be related to nûlo/nûlu/nâlu, but given the evil connotations of these words (SD/306) and the different stem vowels, this seems unlikely to me.

Cognates

• ᴹQ. Isil “Moon, (lit.) Sheen” ✧ SD/241; SD/306

Derivatives

• Wes. nil “moon” ✧ SD/306

Element in

• Ad. Nîlû “(Man in the) Moon” ✧ SD/426
• Ad. Ûrinîluwat “Sun and Moon” ✧ SD/428
• Ad. ûriyat nîlô “sun and moon” ✧ SD/428

Variations

• Nīlū ✧ SD/241
• Nīlu ✧ SD/306
• nīlu ✧ SD/431
• Nil ✧ SDI2/Nîlû
• Njūl ✧ SDI2/Nîlû