fend (door), construct fen, pl. find, coll. pl. fennath
Sindarin
fen
noun. door, threshold
fen
door
fend
treshold
fend
door
(threshold), construct fen, pl. find, coll. pl. fennath, 2) fennas (gateway), pl. fennais, coll. pl. fennassath, 3) annon (great gate), pl. ennyn
fend
treshold
(door), construct fen, pl. find, coll. pl. fennath
fen(n)
noun. door, door; [N.] threshold
A word for “door” in the name Fen Hollen “Closed Door” (LotR/826; RC/550). In notes from December 1959 (D59), Tolkien based it on the root √PHEN and gave its Quenya equivalent as fenna, indicating a primitive form of ✱phennā (PE17/181). If so, its ordinary form should be fenn, and this was indeed the form in Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s (WR/341). Perhaps fen is a reduced pseudo-prefixal form.
Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien had N. fenn “threshold” derived from ON. phenda under the root ᴹ√PHEN (Ety/PHEN).
Neo-Sindarin: I don’t think the senses “door” and “threshold” are likely to coexist, so for purposes of Neo-Sindarin I would limit fenn to “door” and would use ᴺS. fend < ✱phenda for “threshold”, following the principle that nd remained “at the end of fully accented monosyllables” in Sindarin (LotR/1115).
annon
noun. great door or gate
fennas
noun. doorway, gateway
fennas
doorway
_ n. doorway. fennas nogothrim lasto beth lammen _'doorway of the Dwarf-folk listen to the words of my tongue'. >> fen
_ n. _door. Q. fenna. >> fennas