4.23 Nose
- ᴱQ. mem n. “beak, ⚠️nose”
- A word in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “nose, beak” derived from the early root ᴱ√MEME (QL/61).
Neo-Quenya: In later writings, Tolkien used ᴹQ. nengwe for “nose”, but I think it might be worth retaining ᴺQ. mem for “beak”. There are no words or primitive forms in the currently published corpus that would collide with it.
- ᴹQ. mundo (mundu-) n. “snout, nose; cape [of land]”
- A word in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “snout, nose, cape” derived from primitive ᴹ✶mbundu under the root ᴹ√MBUD “project” (Ety/MBUD). For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would use it primarily for the noses of animals.
- ᴱQ. nen (neng-) n. “nostril”
- A word appearing as ᴱQ. nen “nostril” in several documents from the 1920s (PE14/72; PE15/75; PE16/113). Its plural form nengi made it clear its stem was neng- (PE14/72; PE16/112). Its (Early Qenya) dual nenqi was also “usually used of the nose or both nostrils of one person” (PE15/75).
Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, the word for “nostril” was ᴱQ. sūma under the early root ᴱ√SUHYU “breath, exhale”, where its dual sunwi “nostrils” could also be used as “nose” (QL/86). The word súma “nostril” was mentioned in the contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa along with its dual sunwi (PME/86). Under the same early root, Tolkien had ᴱQ. súne as a more ordinary word for “nose”, specifically a nose of a human (QL/86; PME/86). ᴱQ. súne “nose” survived in the documents from the 1920s (PE14/76; PE15/75; PE16/136), but “nostril” became ᴱQ. nen (neng-) as noted above.
See the entry on ᴹQ. nengwe for a discussion of later “nose” words from the 1930s.
Neo-Quenya: Since ᴹ√NEÑ-WI was the base for the word ᴹQ. nengwe “nose” in The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/NEÑ-WI), ᴺQ. nen (neng-) “nostril” might remain viable for purposes of Neo-Quenya as a derivative of the shorter form of this root: ᴹ√NEÑ. However, in later Quenya grammar its dual would most likely become *nengu, and I would use the dual only for “(pair of) nostrils” and not “nose”.
- ᴹQ. nengwe n. “nose”
- A word for “nose” in The Etymologies written around 1937, derived from ᴹ√NEÑ-WI (Ety/NEÑ-WI), an elaboration of the shorter root ᴹ√NEÑ (EtyAC/NEÑ-WI). Given its primitive form, its stem ought to be nengwi-, but in attested compounds this word is consistently nengwe-, so perhaps Tolkien changed his mind on its primitive form.
Conceptual Development: The earliest percursor to this word seems to be ᴱQ. nen (neng-) “nostril” in several documents from the 1920s (PE14/72; PE15/75; PE16/113), whose dual nenqi was also used for a “nose” of one person (PE14/76; PE15/75). In the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s, Tolkien had nin (ning-) “beak, nose” < ᴹ✶nengǝ (PE21/26), though this phonetic shift of short e to i is rather unusual and seems to be limited to this document.
- ᴹQ. nengwea adj. “nasal”
- A word for “nasal” in The Etymologies from the 1930s, simply an adjectival form of ᴹQ. nengwe “nose” (Ety/NEÑ-WI). It also appeared in the version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa from the 1930s (TQ1) as a nominalized plural Nengwear “nasals”, labeling the nasal row of a chart of sounds (PE18/30).
- N. bon(n) adj. “snouted”
- An adjective for “snouted” in The Etymologies of the 1930s appearing only in a reduced form as the final element of N. annabon “elephant” = “long-snouted” (Ety/MBUD). It was derived from primitive ᴹ✶mbundā under the root ᴹ√MBUD “project” (Ety/MBUD), where the u became o via a-affection.
Neo-Sindarin: In keeping with the principle that nd remained “at the end of fully accented monosyllables” in Sindarin (LotR/1115), I would adapted this word as ᴺS. bond “snouted” for purposes of Neo-Sindarin.
- N. bunn n. “snout, nose; cape [of land]”
- A word appearing as N. bunn “snout, nose, cape” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, derived from primitive ᴹ✶mbundu under the root ᴹ√MBUD “project” (Ety/MBUD).
Neo-Sindarin: In keeping with the principle that nd remained “at the end of fully accented monosyllables” in Sindarin (LotR/1115), I would adapted this word as ᴺS. bund for purposes of Neo-Sindarin. I would use it primarily for the noses of animals, and only metaphorically as a cape of land.
- G. hunt n. “nose, nostrils, snout”
- The noun G. hunt “nostrils, nose, snout” appeared in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, where Tolkien said it was “properly [an] old dual” (GL/50). In The Gnomish Grammar Tolkien gave it the gloss “the nose (originally nostrils)”, and specified that it was based on an old dual suffix -nt. It may have been derived from some variant of the early root ᴱ√SUHYU “breath, exhale, puff”, and may be related to ᴱQ. súma “nostril” (QL/86).
Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would adapt this as ᴺS. sunt “(pair of) nostrils” from the later root √SŪ “blow” as a now-obscure fossilized dual of *sūm(ă) (?“blow-thing”) combined with the ancient dual suffix ✶-t, where sūm-t(ă) > sunt. A single nostril would be sunneg with the singular suffix -eg. Sindarin has a similar fossilized dual form: lhaw “(pair of) ears” vs. lheweg “ear”.
- G. irt n. “beak (of small birds)”
- A noun appearing as G. irt⁽²⁾ “beak (of small birds)” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/52), clearly based on the early root ᴱ√ᴵRTYᴵR “peck, prick” (QL/43). There was no irt⁽¹⁾.
Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would adapt this word as ᴺS. irth “beak” based on the Neo-Root ᴺ√IRIT; compare S. amarth < ✶(a)mbarta.
- N. nem n. “nose”
- A word for “nose” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, with archaic form nemb and derived from ᴹ√NEÑ-WI (Ety/NEÑ-WI), an elaboration of the shorter root ᴹ√NEÑ (EtyAC/NEÑ-WI). The mb is a result of the Old Noldorin change of labialized velars into labials (ñw > ñgw > mb), a sound change that also occurred in Sindarin.
Conceptual Development: Similar but earlier “nose” words include G. nûn {“a nostril” >>} “a nose (of men only)” from the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/61) and ᴱN. {nheth >>} neth “nose” in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s (PE13/151).