_n. _stone, rock. Archaic S. gond > gonn. Q. ondo. >> Gondor
Sindarin
gon-
gon-
gond
noun. great stone, rock
gond
stone
gond
noun. stone, rock, stone, rock, [N.] stone (as a material), [G.] great stone
The basic word for “stone” or “rock” in Sindarin (PE17/28-29; WJ/201). More specifically, it was “stone as a material” (PE17/28; Ety/GOND) as opposed to an individual stone, which was S. sarn (RC/327; VT42/11). In one place Tolkien said “Sindarin had a short form gŏn- < ✱PQ gōn, gon-, stone, a stone, or a single thing made of stone” (PE17/28), and in another Tolkien said “shorter gon- was used for smaller objects made of stone, especially carved figures” (RC/347); this short form seems to be prefixal. Longer gond was derived from the root ᴹ√GONOD of essentially the same meaning, as was its Quenya cognate Q. ondo (Ety/GOND).
Conceptual Development: This word dates all the way back to the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s where this word appeared as G. gonn “great stone, rock” (GL/41). It was probably a derivative of ᴱ√ONO “hard” from the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon from which its Qenya cognate ᴱQ. on(d) “a stone” was derived (QL/70). The early root form was probably ✱ᴱ√ƷONO, with the initial ʒ vanishing in Qenya but becoming g in Gnomish. Later on, this derivation no longer worked, since Tolkien decided that initial ʒ became h in Qenya. In The Etymologies of the 1930s, this word appeared as N. gonn “stone (as a material)” with the derivation given above (Ety/GOND).
Neo-Sindarin: Tolkien gave this word as both gonn and gond, but in keeping with the notion that the sound “remained nd at the end of fully accented monosyllables” in Sindarin (LotR/1115), most Neo-Sindarin writers use gond.
Cognates
- Q. ondo “stone (as a material), (large mass of) rock” ✧ PE17/029; SA/gond
Derivations
Element in
- S. Argonath “Pillars of the Kings, (lit.) Royal Stones” ✧ RC/347; SA/gond
- S. Beregond “?Valiant Stone”
- S. Gondolin “Hidden Rock, (originally) Singing Stone” ✧ PE17/029; SA/gond; SA/gond; WJ/201
- S. Gondor “Stone-land” ✧ PE17/028; PE17/028; RC/347; SA/gond
- S. Gondrant “Stone-trail” ✧ NM/363
- ᴺS. gonneb “stony, rocky”
- S. Gonnhirrim “Masters of Stone” ✧ SA/gond
- ᴺS. gonnos “great rock”
- ᴺS. gonnoth “pillar, stele, memorial”
- S. Imrath Gondraich “Stonewain Valley”
- S. Nan Gondresgion “Stonewain Valley”
- S. seregon “stonecrop, plant with red flowers, (lit.) blood of stone” ✧ SA/gond
- S. Tum Gondregain “Stonewain Valley” ✧ NM/363
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ✶gōn/gon- > gŏn- [gondō] > [gondo] > [gond] > [gonn] ✧ PE17/028 ✶gon-d > gon- [gond-] > [gonn-] ✧ RC/347 Variations
- gonn ✧ PE17/029
- Gond ✧ WJ/201
gonn
noun. stone, rock
gondren
adjective. (made) of stone
sarn
noun. small stone
Sern in UT/463 is a misprint, see VT/42:11
sarn
noun. stone (as a material)
Sern in UT/463 is a misprint, see VT/42:11
gond
stone
(i ’ond, construct gon) (great stone or rock), pl. gynd (i ngynd = i ñynd), coll. pl. gonnath (Letters:410).
gôn
stone
(i ’ôn, construct gon); pl. gŷn, coll. pl. #gonath as in Argonath.
gonhir
master of stone
(i ’Onhir), no distinct pl. form except with article (i Ngonhir = i Ñonhir), maybe primarily used as a coll. pl. Gonhirrim (WJ:205, there spelt ”Gonnhirrim”)
gondren
made of stone, stony
(stony), lenited ’ondren, pl. gendrin. Archaic pl. göndrin (TI:270).
gondrath
street of stone
(i ’ondrath) (causeway, raised stone highway), pl. gendraith (i ngendraith = i ñendraith). Archaic pl. göndreith. (WJ:340)
sarn
stone
1) (small stone, or stone as material) sarn (i harn, o sarn), pl. sern (i sern); also used as adj. ”stony, made of stone”. 2) gôn (i **ôn, construct gon); pl. gŷn, coll. pl. #**gonath as in Argonath. 3) (larger stone) gond (i **ond, construct gon) (great stone or rock), pl. gynd (i ngynd = i ñynd), coll. pl. gonnath** (Letters:410).
sarn
stone
(i harn, o sarn), pl. sern (i sern); also used as adj. ”stony, made of stone”.
sarn
made of stone, stony
(lenited harn; pl. sern); also used as noun ”small stone, pebble, stone [as material]”; as adj. also = ”stony”.
{ŏ}n. -. >> gond, Gondor