n. street.
Sindarin
rath
noun. street, street, track; [N.] course, river-bed
rath
noun. street
rath
noun. course, riverbed
rath
noun. street (in a city)
rath celerdain
place name. Lampwrights’ Street
A street in Minas Tirith translated “Lampwrights’ Street” (LotR/768), a combination of rath “street” and the plural of calardan “lampwright” (RC/523, PE17/96).
Conceptual Development: In Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, this name first appeared as (singular) N. Rath a Chalardain >> (plural) Rath a Chelerdain (WR/388). This form seems to included the genitive preposition N. a(n) “of”, elided and causing nasal mutation of the following noun, as suggested by Roman Rausch (EE/3.25).
rath dínen
place name. Silent Street
A street in Minas Tirith translated “Silent Street” (LotR/826), a combination of rath “street” and (possibly lenited) dínen “silent” (RC/551).
Conceptual Development: When it first appeared in Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, this name was already Rath Dínen (WR/288).
rathlóriel
place name. Golden-bed
Another name of the river Ascar translated “Golden-bed” (S/235), a combination of rath “river-bed” and the lenited form of glóriel “golden” (SA/laurë; Ety/RAT, LÁWAR).
Conceptual Development: When it first appeared in Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s, this name was N. Rathlorion “Golden-bed” (SM/134), later changed to N. Rathloriel “Bed of Gold” (LR/141). The second name appeared in The Etymologies, with essentially the same derivation as given above (Ety/RAT, LÁWAR). In Silmarillion revisions from the 1950s-60s the o was lengthened (WJ/346), and Tolkien considered changing the name to Rathmalad or Rathmallen (WJ/191, 353).
Rath Celerdain
noun. street of lampwrights
rath (“street”), celerdain (pl. of calardan “lampwrights” < calar (“lamp”) + tan (“maker, smith”)
Rath Díne
noun. silent street
rath (“climbing passage, street”), dínen (“silent”) In WJ the form found is Rath Dhínen, with regular lenition.
rath
course
rath (climb, climbing path, street, riverbed), pl. raist (idh raist) (UT:255)
rath
riverbed
rath (climb, climbing path, street, course), pl. raist (idh raist) (UT:255)
rath
climbing path
rath (street, course, riverbed), pl. raist (idh raist) (UT:255)
rath
climbing path
rath (street, course, riverbed), pl. raist (idh raist) (UT:255).
rath
street
(climb, climbing path, course, riverbed), pl. raist (idh raist) (UT:255).
rath
climbing path
(street, course, riverbed), pl. raist (idh raist) (UT:255)
rath
course
(climb, climbing path, street, riverbed), pl. raist (idh raist) (UT:255)
rath
riverbed
(climb, climbing path, street, course), pl. raist (idh raist) (UT:255)
andrath
long climb
(high pass), pl. endraith,
sennui
adverb. (?) rather, (?) instead (used as an adverb?)
sennui
adverb. ?rather, instead, thisly
sennui
rather
sennui (instead) (SD:128-31)
sennui
rather
(instead) (SD:128-31)
othrad
street
1) *othrad (pl. ethraid for archaic öthraid). Suggested Sindarin form of ”Noldorin” ostrad. 2) rath (climb, climbing path, course, riverbed), pl. raist (idh raist) (UT:255). 3)
ŷr
course
*ŷr (construct yr; no distinct pl. form; coll. pl. yrath). Suggested Sindarin form of ”Noldorin” iôr.
yr
course
; no distinct pl. form; coll. pl. yrath). Suggested Sindarin form of ”Noldorin” iôr.
amrad-
verb. to climb
othrad
noun. street
ŷr
noun. course
amrad-
verb. to climb
othrad
noun. street
othrad
street
(pl. ethraid for archaic öthraid). Suggested Sindarin form of ”Noldorin” ostrad.
red-
verb. to climb
A word used in street-names in Minis Tirith, most notably Rath Celerdain “Lampwrights’ Street” (LotR/768) and Rath Dínen “Silent Street” (LotR/826). It was also an element in the (rejected) name Raith ’Ngorthrim “Paths of the Dead” (RC/526) and the river-name Rathlóriel “Golden-bed” (S/235), but the last of these may be a remnant of its 1930s meaning (see below). In the “Unfinished Index” of The Lord of the Rings Tolkien indicated that rath meant “street (in a city)” (RC/523, 551).
The most extensive description of this word appears in a 1968 discussion of the (possibly related) name Amroth which Tolkien said “is connected with a stem RATH meaning ‘climb’ - with hands and feet, as in a tree or up a rocky slope”. Regarding S. rath Tolkien said:
> Both Quenya and Lindarin also possessed a word ratta, which might be a derivative (by lengthening the medial consonant, a frequent device in Primitive Eldarin) from either ✱rattha or ✱ratta from the stem RAT ... It meant ‘a track’; though often applied to ways known to mountaineers, to passes in the mountains and the climbing ways to them, it was not confined to ascents ... This is evidently the origin also of S. rath ... [which] had the same senses as Q., L. ratta, though in mountainous country it was most used of climbing ways ... In Minas Tirith, in the Númenórean Sindarin that was used in Gondor for the nomenclature of places, rath had become virtually equivalent to ‘street’, being applied to nearly all the paved ways within the city. Most of these were on an incline, often steep (NM/364).
Thus Sindarin rath was a blending of √RATH “climb” and ✶ratta “track” < √RAT “find a way”, and in the context of Minas Tirith was generalized to “(city) street” since most of that city’s streets were sloped.
Rath seems to have been used in the sense “climb” or “climbing track” in the name Andrath [= “✱Long Climb”] for the high-climbing pass from Rivendell over the Misty Mountains that Bilbo and the Dwarves took in The Hobbit, as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (UT/271, 278 note #4). However, the name Andrath was also used for the road running from Fornost down to Tharbad (TI/305; UT/348) which was unlikely to climb much, so in that case may have been used in the sense “street”, “track”, or “course”.
Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies of the 1930s, N. rath was also derived from ON. rattha < ᴹ✶rattā̆ under the root ᴹ√RAT “walk”, but in that document it was glossed “course, river-bed” (Ety/RAT). In this sense it was the basis for the river-name N. Rathloriel, translated “Bed of Gold” in narratives from this period (LR/141). This translation of Rathlóriel survived in The Silmarillion as published (S/235), but may have been a remnant of the 1930s meaning of rath.
Neo-Sindarin: Tolkien’s 1968 note implies that original sense of S. rath was a “(climbing) track”, and may have meant “street” only in Númenórean Sindarin, or possibly just for street names in Minas Tirith. For city streets in other contexts I would use [N.] ostrad or [ᴺS.] othrad. I would furthermore ignore the 1930s translation N. rath “course, river-bed”, and would assume that Rathlóriel had a more metaphorical meaning: “✱Golden Street/Track”. For “(river) course” I was instead use the better-attested S. rant; see that entry for details.