Sindarin 

finnel

noun. mass of long hair

n. mass of long hair. >> find, finn

Sindarin [(PE17 Sindarin Corpus) PE17:17] < O.S. _findel _ < *_spin-delē _mass of hairs, head of hair < SPIN a single hair, filament + DEL thick, dense. Group: Parma Eldalamberon 17 Sindarin Corpus. Published by

finnel

noun/adjective. head of hair, fax, mass of long hair; having fine or beautiful hair, head of hair, fax, mass of long hair; having fine or beautiful hair; [N.] (braided) hair; [G.] tress

This word had a quite lengthy history as an element in the name S. Glorfindel “Golden Hair”. It appeared in the Name-list to the Fall of Gondolin as G. findel “tress” (PE15/24) and in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon with the gloss “a lock of hair”, but in that document it was deleted and replaced by G. finn “a lock of hair” and G. fingl or finnil “tress” (GL/35). It appeared as N. finnel “(braided) hair” in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√SPIN (Ety/SPIN).

In Notes on Names (NN) from 1957 findel was an adjective meaning “having beautiful hair” or “having fine hair” (PE17/119, 151). In a torn half sheet from the late 1950s or early 1960s it was OS. findel, S. finnel “mass of long hair”, and in a document from around 1965 it was (archaic) findel “head of hair, fax” from primitive ✶spindilā (PE17/17). In this last document Tolkien said it was “preserved mainly in such old names as Glorfindel”, so Tolkien may have intended that it was no longer in active use in modern Sindarin.

Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I’d use fîn for a single hair, find for a tress or lock of hair or hair in general, with finnel used for an entire head of hair, assuming finnel survived into modern Sindarin with the usual sound change of medial nd to nn. I would assume it can also be used adjectivally in reference to having beautiful hair.

Cognates

  • Q. findelë “tress, lock [of hair]” ✧ PE17/017
  • Q. findilë “head of hair” ✧ PE17/017

Derivations

  • spindilā “head of hair” ✧ PE17/017; PE17/017; PE17/119; PE17/151

Element in

Phonetic Developments

DevelopmentStagesSources
espin-delē > findel > finnel[spindelē] > [spindele] > [sɸindele] > [ɸindele] > [findele] > [findel] > [finnel]✧ PE17/017
spindilā > findel[spindilā] > [spindila] > [sɸindila] > [ɸindila] > [ɸindela] > [findela] > [findel] > [finnel]✧ PE17/017
spin-dela > findel[spindela] > [sɸindela] > [ɸindela] > [findela] > [findel] > [finnel]✧ PE17/119

Variations

  • findel ✧ PE17/017 (findel); PE17/119; PE17/151
Sindarin [PE17/017; PE17/119; PE17/151] Group: Eldamo. Published by

findel

adjective. having beautiful hair

adj. having beautiful hair. >> Glorfindel

Sindarin [(PE17 Sindarin Corpus) PE17:119] < _spin-dela _< SPIN-ID lock, tress of human/elvish hair. Group: Parma Eldalamberon 17 Sindarin Corpus. Published by

findel

noun/adjective. head of hair, fax, mass of long hair; having fine or beautiful hair

laws

noun. hair ringlet

Sindarin [Ety/370, X/LH] Group: SINDICT. Published by

finnel

braided tress of hair

finnel (pl. finnil). Archaic †findel (pl. findil).

finnel

braided tress of hair

finnel (pl. finnil). Archaic †findel (pl. †findil).

finnel

braided tress of hair

(pl. finnil). Archaic †findel (pl. findil).

find

hair

(construct fin), no distinct pl. form, coll. pl. finnath.

fîn

hair

1) (a single hair) fîn (construct fin), no distinct pl. form. (PM:362), 2) (lock of hair, tress) find (construct fin), no distinct pl. form, coll. pl. finnath.

fîn

hair

(construct fin), no distinct pl. form. (PM:362)

fast

shaggy hair

(pl. faist if there is a pl.).