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Select Elvish Words 9.16: to Bind

9.16 to Bind

ᴱQ. hepe- v. “to bind”

A word appearing as ᴱQ. hepin “I bind” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s and as hepe- “bind” in the contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa of the 1910s, derived from the early root ᴱ√HEPE of the same meaning (QL/40). It reappeared in a past form hepsine “bound” in the Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s (PE14/56).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I prefer to use neologisms like ᴺQ. hap- for “to bind” and ᴺQ. hep- for “to keep”, consistent with the later meaning of these roots.

ᴱQ. lia- v. “to entwine”

A verb appearing as ᴱQ. lia- “entwine” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s derived from ᴱ√LI+ya “unite many as one” (QL/53).

Neo-Quenya: I think this verb can be retained for purposes of Neo-Quenya as a derivative of the later root ᴹ√SLIG.

ᴹQ. nut- v. “to tie”

A verb in The Etymologies of the 1930s appearing as nutin “I tie” under the root ᴹ√NUT “tie, bind” (Ety/NUT).

G. botheb- v. “to untie, undo, unloose”

A verb appearing as G. botheb- “undo, untie, unloose” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, a combination of G. bod- “back” (also = “un-”) and G. heb- “bind” (GL/23).

Neo-Sindarin: Neither the prefix or the sense of the verb survived in Tolkien’s later writings, so I would using the neologism ᴺS. únod- “to untie, undo, unloose” instead, a negated form of the later verb [N.] nod- “to tie”.

N. gwedh- v. “to bind”

A verb in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “bind” appearing in its (Noldorin) infinitive form gwedi, with an archaic past form gwend/gwenn and a later past gweðant, all under the root ᴹ√WED “bind” (Ety/WED). Given its root, the expected stem form would be *gwedh-, so the form gwedi is probably either archaic or malformed.

Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would assume its stem form was gwedh-, and I would modernize its past forms as described in the entry on the Sindarin past tense.

N. naud n. “bound”

An adjective meaning “bound” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, cognate to ᴹQ. nauta “bound, obliged”, all under the root ᴹ√NUT “tie, bind” (Ety/NUT).

N. nod- v. “to tie”

A verb glossed “tie” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, appearing as nud- under the root ᴹ√NUT “tie, bind” (Ety/NUT) but as nod- under the entry for the root ᴹ√, where Tolkien said it coalesced with N. nod- “count” in Exhilic Noldorin (Ety/WŌ). Since short [u] generally became [o] in Sindarin and Noldorin, it seems nud- was an archaic form and the modern form was nod- “to tie”, crowding out nod- “count” which in turn was replaced by other independent verbs like N. gonod- “to count (up)”, though nod “count” survived as an element in compounds (Ety/NOT, WŌ).

N. taetha- v. “to fasten, tie”

A verb in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “to fasten, tie”, under the root ᴹ√TAK “fix, make fast” (Ety/TAK). It is clearly based on an ancient causative form *taktā- “to make fixed/fast”, where the ancient k spirantalized and then vocalized and eventually produced the diphthong ae.

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