curuvar

wizard

curuvar _("k")_noun "wizard" (LT1:269 but Gandalf, Saruman etc. were istari)

curwë

craft

curwë ("k")noun "craft" (KUR), "skill of the hand" (VT41:10), Curwë ("K") "technical skill and invention" (PM:360 cf. 344)

nér

man

nér (1) (ner-, as in pl. neri) noun "man" (adult male elf, mortal, or of other speaking race) (MR:213, VT49:17, DER, NDER, NI1, VT45:9; see also WJ:393)

nér

noun. man

Istar

wizard

Istar noun "Wizard", used of Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast etc. Pl. Istari is attested. Gen. pl. in the phrase Heren Istarion "Order of Wizards" (UT:388). "The istari are translated wizards because of the connexion of wizard with wise and so with witting and knowing" (Letters:207); by this translation Tolkien tries to reproduce the relationship between Quenya istar and ista- #1, 2.

sairon

wizard

sairon noun "wizard" (SAY); according to LT2:337 and GL:29, Sairon is also the Quenya (or Qenya) name of Dairon (Daeron).

lér

man

**lér noun "man" (NI1; hypothetical Q form of PQ dēr; the form actually used in Quenya was nér)

vëo

man

†vëo noun "man" (WEG; etymologically connected to vëa "manly, vigorous"; the more neutral word for "man" is nér. According to VT46:21, Tolkien indicated that vëo is an archaic or poetic word.) Tolkien at a later point defined the word as "living creature" (PE17:189). Cf. variant wëo, q.v.

tanwë

craft, thing made, device, construction

tanwë noun "craft, thing made, device, construction" (TAN)

curunír

noun. man of craft, wizard

curunír

noun. wizard

curunír

noun. wizard, wizard, [N.] man of craft

@@@ a compound of curu “skill, craft” (SA/curu) and the agental suffix -n(d)ir

Element in

• S. Curunír “Man of Skill”

Elements

Word	Gloss
curu	“skill (of the hand), craft; power, ability, skill (of the hand), craft; power, ability; [N.] cunning; [ᴱN.] magic”
dîr	“man, man, [N.] adult male; agental suffix”

curunír

masculine name. Man of Skill

The Sindarin name of Saruman, translated “Man of Skill” (LotR/1085), “Man of Craft” (UT/390) or “one of cunning devices” (RC/389). His name is a compound of curu “skill, craft” (SA/curu) and the agental suffix -n(d)ir.

Conceptual Development: Saruman’s Sindarin name did not emerge until late in the writing of The Lord of the Rings (PM/228), but the noun N. curunir “a man of craft, wizard” appeared in The Etymologies from the 1930s (Ety/KUR), where it had essentially the same derivation as above. This noun was capitalized (EtyAC/KUR) and so could have been Saruman’s name, but curunír also appeared in Tolkien’s later writings as a general word for “wizard” (PE22/151). Any even earlier precursor might be G. curug “wizard” in the Gnomish Lexicon from the 1910s (GL/28).

Cognates

• Q. Curumo “*Skilled-one” ✧ UT/401; UTI/Curunír
• Un. Saruman ✧ LotRI/Saruman; SI/Saruman; UT/390; UTI/Saruman; PMI/Saruman

Element in

• S. Curunír ’Lân “Saruman the White” ✧ UT/390
• S. Nan Curunír “Valley of Saruman”

Elements

Word	Gloss
curunír	“wizard, wizard, [N.] man of craft”

dîr

noun. man, man, [N.] adult male; agental suffix

A word for “man” as a male person, attested only as an element in compounds or as (archaic?) ndir (PE17/60). This word likely refers to male individuals of all races including Elves, Men, Dwarves and so forth, much like its Quenya cognate Q. nér. This word must have been derived from the primitive subjective form ✶ndēr of the root √N(D)ER “male person”, where the ancient long ē became ī, and the initial cluster nd- became d-, though the ancient cluster would still be reflected in mutated forms, such as in i nîr “the man” rather than ✱✱i dhîr.

Conceptual Development: Perhaps the earliest precursor to this word is (archaic) G. †drio “hero, warrior” with variants driw, driodweg and driothweg, a cognate of ᴱQ. nēr (GL/22). This Gnomish word was derived from primitive ᴱ✶n’reu̯, where the initial nr- became dr-. At this early stage, the root was unstrengthened ᴱ√NERE (QL/65), as reflected in (archaic) ᴱN. nîr “hero, prince, warrior-elf” in the Early Noldorin Dictionary of the 1920s (PE13/164).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s the root became ᴹ√DER “adult male, man” of any speaking race and the derived form was N. dîr (Ety/DER). However, in this document Tolkien said:

> EN †dîr surviving chiefly in proper names (as Diriel older Dirghel [GYEL], Haldir, Brandir) and as agental ending (as ceredir “doer, maker”) ... In ordinary use EN has benn [for “man”] (properly = “husband”).

Thus in the scenario described in The Etymologies, dîr “man” was archaic and used only as an element in names or as a suffix. In ordinary speech it was replaced by N. benn, which used to mean “husband” but now meant “man”, while the word for “husband” became N. hervenn (Ety/BES). It is unlikely Tolkien imagined this exact scenario in later Sindarin, however, since the 1930s root for benn was ᴹ√BES “wed”, but by the 1960s the root for husband/wife/marry words had become √BER.

Neo-Sindarin: Since the status of N. benn is questionable given ᴹ√BES >> √BER, many Neo-Sindarin writers prefer to use S. ✱dîr as the Sindarin word for man. I am of the opinion that both dîr and benn are acceptable for “man, male person”. This is because I prefer to retain ᴹ√BES as the root for “marry, wed”, since it is the best basis for attested husband/wife words in (Neo) Sindarin.

Derivations

• ✶ndē̆r “man”
  • √N(D)ER “male (person), man”

Element in

• S. Borondir “?Steadfast-man”
• S. Brandir “*Noble Man”
• S. condir “mayor, *(lit.) chief-man”
• S. curunír “wizard, wizard, [N.] man of craft”
• S. dagnir “slayer, bane”
• S. Dírhael “*Wise Man”
• S. dírnaith “wedge-shaped battle-formation, (lit.) man-spearhead”
• S. Emeldir “Manhearted, *Manly-mother”
• S. Haldir
• S. Handir
• S. Hathaldir
• S. Hatholdir “*Axe-man”
• S. herdir “master”
• S. Lindir
• S. Othrondir “?Stronghold Man”
• S. randir “wanderer, wandering man, pilgrim” ✧ PE17/060
• S. Thorondir “*Eagle-man”

Variations

• ndir ✧ PE17/060

Dúnadan

noun. Man of the west, Númenórean

drúadan

noun. wild man, one of the Woses

drû

noun. wild man, Wose, Púkel-Man

In PE/11:31, an older Gnomish word drû, drui meant "wood, forest", and in PE/13:142, the early Noldorin word drú was assigned the meaning "dark". Drû pl. Drúin later came to be used for the name of the Woses, with other derivatives (Drúadan, etc.). "Wose" is actually the modernization of an Anglo-Saxon word wasa only found in the compound wudu-wasa "wild man of the woods", cf. UT/385 sq. In the drafts of the "Ride of the Rohirrim" in WR/343-346, the Woses first appeared as "the dark men of Eilenach". Though internally said to derive from drughu in their own tongue, Tolkien's choice for the Sindarin name of the Woses was apparently influenced by earlier meanings assigned to this word

ithron

noun. wizard

ithron

noun. Wizard

Cognates

• Q. Istar “Wizard, (lit.) One Who Knows” ✧ UT/388; UTI/Istari

Element in

• S. Ithryn Luin “Blue Wizards” ✧ UT/390

adanadar

noun. man, one of the Fathers of Men

adanath

noun. men

adan

noun. man, one of the Second People (elvish name for men)

curunír

man of craft

(i gurunír, o churunír) (wizard), no distinct pl. form except with article (i churunír), coll. pl. ?curuníriath.

curunír

wizard

curunír (i gurunír, o churunír) (man of craft), no distinct pl. form except with article (i churunír), coll. pl. curuníriath.

curunír

man of craft

(i gurunír, o churunír) (wizard), no distinct pl. form except with article (i churunír), coll. pl. ?curuníriath

curunír

man of craft

curunír (i gurunír, o churunír) (wizard), no distinct pl. form except with article (i churunír), coll. pl. ?curuníriath

curunír

man of craft

curunír (i gurunír, o churunír) (wizard), no distinct pl. form except with article (i churunír), coll. pl. ?curuníriath.

curunír

wizard

(i gurunír, o churunír) (man of craft), no distinct pl. form except with article (i churunír), coll. pl. curuníriath.

dîr

man

1) (adult male of any speaking race) dîr (dír-, also agentive ending -dir or -nir; with article, i nîr, hard mutation as in o ndîr), no distinct pl. form except with article (i ndîr); coll. pl. díriath. Also benn (i venn, construct ben), pl. binn (i minn). The latter is in archaic language used = "husband" (the etymological meaning). The ending -we in names may also express ”being, man, person”. 2) (mortal human as opposed to Elf) Adan (pl. Edain; the coll. pl. Adanath is attested). The word Adan came to be used primarily of a member of the Three Houses of the Edain, not of the mortal race of Men in general.

dîr

man

(dír-, also agentive ending -dir or -nir; with article, i nîr, hard mutation as in o ndîr), no distinct pl. form except with article (i ndîr); coll. pl. díriath. Also benn (i venn, construct ben), pl. binn (i minn). The latter is in archaic language used = "husband" (the etymological meaning). The ending -we in names may also express ”being, man, person”.

dúnadan

man of the west

(i Núnadan), pl. Dúnedain (i Ndúnedain) (WJ:378, 386).

bôr

trusty man

(boron-) (i vôr, construct bor) (steadfast man, faithful vassal), pl. *b**ŷr* for older beryn, i meryn (archaic böryn, i möryn). In ”Noldorin”, the older pl. forms were berein, beren.

maenas

craft

maenas (i vaenas) (handicraft, art), pl. maenais (i maenais), coll. pl. maenassath. Also curu (i guru, o churu) (cunning, cunning device, skill), pl. cyry (i chyry) (VT45:24);

maenas

craft

(i vaenas) (handicraft, art), pl. maenais (i maenais), coll. pl. maenassath. Also curu (i guru, o churu) (cunning, cunning device, skill), pl. cyry (i chyry) (VT45:24);

firion

mortal man

(pl. firyn).

ithron

wizard

1) ithron (= Quenya istar, one of the order Gandalf belonged to), pl. ithryn, coll. pl. ithronnath (UT:388), 2)

ithron

wizard

(= Quenya istar, one of the order Gandalf belonged to), pl. ithryn, coll. pl. ithronnath (UT:388)

rhavan

wild man

(?i thravan or ?i ravan – the lenition product of rh is uncertain), pl. rhevain (?idh revain) (WJ:219). – The following terms apparently apply to ”men” of any speaking race:

adan

man

(pl. Edain; the coll. pl. Adanath is attested). The word Adan came to be used primarily of a member of the Three Houses of the Edain, not of the mortal race of Men in general.

thalion

dauntless man

(hero), pl. thelyn. Also used as an adj. ”dauntless, steadfast, strong”. 

beorn

noun. man

The shift of e to eo is strange and has no direct parallels, but compare eo from i in meord "fine rain" (< primitive mizdê). Normally final -ô becomes -â in Nandorin (see golda), but here it is simply lost instead of producing *beorna. C.f. meord the other word where we might have expected to see a final -a (in that case from -ê); it may be that final vowels are lost in words that would otherwise come to have more than two syllables. - The shift of primitive s to r in besnô > beorn may be ascribed primarily to the blending with ber(n)ô, but r from z is seen in meord < mizdê; perhaps the s of besnô first became z and then r. Such developments are common in Quenya.

zigûr

noun. wizard

A noun translated “wizard” and given as an example of a noun with a long vowel in its final syllable that (archaically) uses the declension for a strong-noun (SD/437), the rare class of Strong-Ib nouns. By the time of Classical Adûnaic, it could be declined as an ordinary weak-noun instead. As the proper name Zigûr, it was the Adûnaic name for Sauron.

Element in

• Ad. Zigûr “Sauron”

Variations

• zigūr ✧ SD/437

ndē̆r

noun. man

Derivations

• √N(D)ER “male (person), man”

Derivatives

• S. dîr “man, man, [N.] adult male; agental suffix”

curunir

noun. man of craft, wizard

curu

noun. craft, skill

curw

noun. craft, skill

dîr

noun. man, referring to an adult male (elf, mortal, or of any other speaking race)

maenas

noun. craft

forodrim

noun. Northmen

forodwaith

noun. Northmen

forodweith

noun. Northmen

forodwaith

noun. the lands of the North

forodweith

noun. the lands of the North

benn

noun. man, male