rú

proper name. Wose

Given as the Quenya word for “Wose” (UT/385), most likely an adaptation of its Sindarin cognate S. Drû.

Cognates

• Wos. Drughu “Wose” ✧ UT/385; UTI/Drúath; UTI/Rú
• S. Drû “Wose” ✧ UT/385; UTI/Drúath; UTI/Rú
• Wes. Rôg “Wose” ✧ UTI/Drúath

Element in

• Q. Rúatan “Wose, (lit.) Wose-man” ✧ UT/385

Druadan

noun. wose

n. wose, wild man.

drúadan

proper name. Wose, (lit.) Wild-man

The full Sindarin word for “Wose”, a compound of Drû “Wose” and Adan “Man” (PM/324, UT/385), also translated as “Wild Man” (PE17/99, WR/352).

Conceptual Development: In Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, the name N. Druadan appeared with a short u (WR/352). It also had a short u in Tolkien’s Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings from the late 1950s or early 1960s (PE17/99), but had a long ú in later writings.

Cognates

• Q. Rúatan “Wose, (lit.) Wose-man” ✧ UT/385; UTI/Rú
• Bs. Oghor-hai “Wose-folk” ✧ UTI/Oghor-hai

Element in

• S. Tawar-in-Drúedain “Drúadan Forest” ✧ UT/319

Elements

Word	Gloss
Drû	“Wose”
Adan	“Man (as a species)”

Variations

• druadan ✧ PE17/099

drúath

noun. the people of the Drû, the Woses

drû

proper name. Wose

A Sindarin word for “Wose”, a loan word from the Wose’s name for themselves: Drughu (UT/385).

Conceptual Development: In his Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings from the late 1950s or early 1960s, Tolkien considered making this word a native Sindarin adjective “savage, wild” derived from the root √DROB, a variant of √SROB from which rhaw “wild” was derived (PE17/99). These roots would produce the Q. cognate (h)róva instead of better established Q. (h)ráva “wild”, so I personally prefer the later derivation of Drû as a loan word from Wos. Drughu.

Cognates

• Q. hráva “wild, savage, wild, savage, [ᴹQ.] untamed” ✧ PE17/099
• Q. Rú “Wose” ✧ UT/385; UTI/Drúath; UTI/Rú

Derivations

• Wos. Drughu “Wose”
• √DROB “*wild” ✧ PE17/099

Element in

• S. Drúadan “Wose, (lit.) Wild-man” ✧ PE17/099; UT/385; UTI/Drúedain
• S. Drúnos “a family of the Drû-folk” ✧ UT/385
• S. Drúwaith “the wilderness of the Drû-folk” ✧ UT/385

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
√D)ROB > drû	[drōb] > [drōv] > [drūv] > [drū]	✧ PE17/099

Variations

• drû ✧ PE17/099

druadan

proper name. Wild Men