12.37 Middle
- Q. endëa adj. “middle, *average”
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An adjectival form of endë “middle” implied by Q. atendëa “double-middle” from the first edition of The Lord of the Rings (RC/728).
Neo-Quenya: In a Discord post from 2025-04-24, Delle suggested this adjective might mean “*average” as well.
- ⚠️Q. entya adj. “central, middle”
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An adjective appearing as {ened >>} entya “central, middle” in notes from the late 1960s, derived from primitive ✶enetya since in this note Tolkien was considered revising its root to √HENET (VT41/16).
Neo-Quenya: Since the root for “middle” was usually √ENED, I’d ignore this late revision and stick with ᴹQ. enya < ✶en[e]dya from The Etymologies (Ety/ÉNED).
- ᴹQ. enya adj. “*central, ⚠️middle”
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An adjective for “middle” in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from ᴹ✶endya under the root ᴹ√ÉNED “centre” (Ety/ÉNED).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would instead use this word for “*central” similar to the gloss of later entya. For “middle” I would use the later adjective Q. endëa.
- Q. holmo adv. “sincerely, heartily; (lit.) from the heart; ⚠️[ᴹQ.] from the middle”
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An adverb in green-ink revisions from around 1970 to the Outline of Phonology (OP2). Its meaning is probably “sincerely, heartily”, but the second word is difficult-to-read (PE19/97). It was derived from ✶khomlō, originally an ablative form meaning “from the heart”. In this note Tolkien said ✶khō̆m “is not the physical heart, but ‘the interior’ used of the whole range of emotions or feelings”, but this is a reversal of his earlier ideas, since usually Tolkien described √KHOM as the physical rather than emotional heart.
Conceptual Development: Tolkien had more literal ᴹQ. holmo “from the middle” and ᴹQ. †humpe “in the middle” (the latter marked archaic) in the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s (PE21/23).
Neo-Quenya: Despite the usual non-emotional meaning of its root, I would retain the meaning of the adverb holmo “sincerely, heartily” as the result of some semantic drift, used of actions performed enthusiastically and with conviction.
- S. enaid adj. “central, middle”
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An adjective appearing as S. enaid in notes from the late 1960s, equivalent to Q. entya “central, middle” and derived from primitive ✶enetya based on the root √HENET (VT41/16).
Neo-Sindarin: Since the usual root for “middle” was √ENED, I’d revise this word to ᴺS. enaidh “central, middle”. Compare to ᴹQ. enya < ✶en[e]dya from The Etymologies (Ety/ÉNED).
- S. enedh n. “centre, middle; [N.] core”
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The usual Sindarin/Noldorin word for “middle” is enedh derived from the root √ENED (UT/264; VT48/25; Ety/ÉNED). This is complicated by the fact that Tolkien wrote Enedwaith “Middle-region” on The Lord of the Rings map (LotR/1089; Let/224). It is my opinion that this use of d for dh originally reflected Tolkien’s normal representation of this letter Lord of the Rings drafts of the 1940s, for example 1940s N. Caradras and N. Fanuidol vs. later S. Caradhras and S. Fanuidhol.
Unlike those other representations of dh, Tolkien never corrected Enedwaith in the published texts, and in notes from the late 1960s he considered revising the “middle” to ened derived from √HENET (VT41/16). In other notes from this period he said Enedhwaith was misspelt ened (VT42/20), so I think ened < √HENET was likely a transient idea.
In compounds enedh is generally used as an adjective, such a lebenedh “middle finger” and Lond Daer Enedh “Great Middle Haven”. In The Etymologies this word was glossed “middle, centre” (Ety/ÉNED) and “core, centre” (Ety/NÉD), which makes me think it was a noun.
Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would treat enedh as a noun when used independently, and use [ᴺS.] enaidh as the adjective for “central, middle”.
- N. nedh- pref. “mid-”
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A prefix for “mid-” in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√NED (Ety/NÉD).