Quenya
findë
noun. hair (especially of the head), tress or plait of hair, hair (especially of the head); tress or plait of hair, [ᴹQ.] braid of hair
Cognates
- S. find “tress; single hair, tress, [ON.] lock of hair; [ᴱN.] hair (in general); [S.] single hair” ✧ PM/345
Derivations
- √SPIN(ID) “fine thread, filament; hair” ✧ PE17/119; PM/340
Element in
- ᴺQ. eldafindë “maidenhair fern, (lit.) elf tress”
- Q. finda “having hair, -haired” ✧ PM/340
- Q. Findaráto “*[Golden] Hair Champion”
- Q. Artafindë “*Noble [Golden] Hair”
- Q. Findecáno “*Hair Commander” ✧ PM/345
- Q. findelë “tress, lock [of hair]” ✧ PE17/119
- Q. findessë “head of hair, person’s hair as a whole” ✧ PM/345
- Q. findilë “head of hair”
- ᴺQ. findimaitar “barber, hairdresser”
- ᴺQ. findori “barley”
- Q. Laurefindele “Golden Haired” ✧ PE17/119
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √SPIN-ID > findë [spinde] > [ɸinde] > [finde] ✧ PE17/119 √PHIN > findë [spinde] > [ɸinde] > [finde] ✧ PM/340
A word mentioned by Tolkien in The Shibboleth of Fëanor from 1968 with glosses “hair, especially of the head” (PM/340) and “hair — a tress or plait of hair” (PM/345). The word finde also appeared in Notes on Names (NN) from 1957 with the gloss “tress, lock” alongside a long form Q. findelë of the same meaning (PE17/119). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, it was ᴹQ. finde “tress, braid of hair” under the root ᴹ√SPIN (Ety/SPIN). The root was likewise √SPIN(ID) in the 1957 Notes on Names, but in the 1968 Shibboleth Tolkien used the root form √PHIN.
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would use findë as a general word for hair (though primarily used for head-hair), also able to refer to a tress, plait or braid of hair, though the word Q. findelë is more specific to that sense. An entire head of hair would be Q. findessë (PM/345), while a single hair would be Q. finë (PE17/17; PM/340). Despite Tolkien’s 1968 change of √SPIN >> √PHIN, I would assume a root form of √SPIN(ID) “hair”, since elsewhere √PHIN usually meant “skill(ful)” (PE17/17, 119, 181; Ety/PHIN).