Sindarin
naur
noun. fire, fire, [N.] flame
Cognates
- Q. nár “fire (as an element), fire (as an element); [ᴹQ.] flame” ✧ PE17/038; SA/nár
Derivations
- √NAR “fire, fire, [ᴹ√] flame” ✧ PE17/038
Element in
- S. Aegnor “Fell Fire, Sharp Flame” ✧ SA/nár
- S. Baranor “?Eager Fire”
- S. Faenor “Spirit of Fire”
- S. Fëanor “Spirit of Fire” ✧ SA/nár
- S. Goenor “Fell Fire” ✧ PM/363
- S. Narbeleth “October, Sun-fading, Sun-waning”
- S. Nardol “Fire-hilltop”
- ᴺS. narvaenas “firework”
- S. Narwain “January, *(lit.) New Fire”
- S. naur an edraith ammen “fire [be] for saving of us” ✧ LotR/0290; LotR/0299; PE17/038
- S. naur dan i ngaurhoth “*fire against the wolf-horde” ✧ LotR/0299; PE17/038
- S. Nórui “June, *Fiery”
- S. Rodnor
- S. Sammath Naur “Chambers of Fire” ✧ LotR/0942; PE17/038; PE17/101; SA/nár
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √(A)NAR > naur [nār] > [nǭr] > [naur] ✧ PE17/038 Variations
- Naur ✧ LotR/0299; LotR/0942
The basic Sindarin word for “fire”, derived from the root √NAR of the same meaning (LotR/942; PE17/38) and very well attested. It is derived from primitive ✱nār- since primitive long ā became au in Sindarin. It appeared as N. naur “flame” in The Etymologies of the 1930s with the same derivation (Ety/NAR). As a suffix it usually reduces to -nor, since au usually becomes o in polysyllables. As a prefix, though, it is often Nar- before consonant clusters, no doubt because the ancient long ā was shortened before it could become au.
Conceptual Development: In the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, the word for “fire” was G. sâ with archaic form †sai (GL/66) clearly based on the early root ᴱ√SAH(Y)A “be hot” as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (LT1A/Sári; QL/81). In Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s, the word for “fire” was ᴱN. byr or buir from primitive ᴱ✶ [mburyē] (PE13/139). Tolkien introduced naur in The Etymologies of the 1930s and stuck with it thereafter.