breth

noun. (beech) mast, *beech nut

A word for “mast” developed from the primitive form ᴹ✶b’rethā or ✱✶berethā (Ety/BERÉTH), because in Ilkorin unstressed initial syllables reduced to favored clusters. It seems this word referred to “beech nuts” rather than the mast of a ship, perhaps generalized to all kinds of forest nuts, as in the Old English word “mæst”. The normal Ilkorin word for “beech tree” is galbreth or neldor.

galbreth

noun. beech

A Doriathrin (and Falathrin) noun for “beech (tree)”, a combination of gald “tree” and breth “(beech) mast” (Ety/GALAD, BERÉTH). The second element originally meant “beech”, but later meant “mast”; this original meaning seems to be preserved in this compound.

neldor

noun. beech

A Doriathrin noun for “beech (tree)”, properly referring to Hirilorn with a true meaning of “three trunks” (Ety/NEL). Tolkien indicated it was a combination of neld “three” and orn “tree”, though it is unclear why the final -n vanished. He marked this derivation with a “?” perhaps because of this uncertainty.

Conceptual Development: Tolkien seems to have coined this word to explain names like Neldoreth. Its most obvious precursor is ᴱQ. neldor (QL/65).