rhîf

noun. brink, brim

A noun appearing as N. rhîf in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√RĪ (Ety/RĪ). Christopher Tolkien did not give this word a gloss in The Etymologies as published in The Lost Road, and many people assumed it had the same meaning as its Quenya equivalent ᴹQ. ríma “edge, hem, border” (LR/358), but Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynne indicated it had a separate gloss “brink, brim” in their Addenda and Corrigenda to the Etymologies (VT46/11). Hostetter and Wynne also indicated Tolkien considered changing the root: “Alter to SRI-”.

Neo-Sindarin: Based on David Salo’s theory that final v became w after i (GS/§4.173, GS/§4.174), some Neo-Sindarin writers adapt this Noldorin word as ᴺS. rîw, with the usual adjustment of Noldorin *rh* to Sindarin *r* (GS/283, HSD/rîw). However, I think the bulk of the evidence is that *v* > *w* was limited to diphthongs *ae* and *oe* in Sindarin. Also, given the revision of the root to SRI, I’d just keep the Noldorin form ᴺS. rhîf “brink, brim” for purposes of Neo-Sindarin.

Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. raim “edge, border-line” derived from the early root ᴱ√rib “a rim” (GL/64), a root that was ᴱ√RIMI in the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon (QL/80).

rhîf

noun. edge, hem, border

edrein

noun. border

rhain

noun. border

rhain

noun. border

rhein

noun. border