A word appearing in numerous names, usually translated “mound” or “funeral mound”. In revisions to the Outline of Phonology (OP2) made around 1959, Tolkien described its origin as follows:
> √KHAB- “heap up, pile up”: khabdā “pile, (artificial) mound”: S haudh, funeral mound ... The sense “funeral mound, especially one in which weapons and other valuables were also buried” shows probably that haudh is also derived from the (perhaps ultimately related) √KHAW “cover up, hide away, lay in store”; with extension ✱KHAWAD “store, hoard” (PE19/91).
Here the ancient combination of stops in ✶khabdā developed as usual in Sindarin: abd became auð, and indeed it was the main example of this development.
Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies of the 1930s, the word N. hauð “mound, grave, tomb” was derived from ᴹ✶khagda “pile, mound” under the root ᴹ√KHAG “pile up” (Ety/KHAG); in that document the sense “grave” was likewise due to the influence of ᴹ√KHAW, though in The Etymologies this root was glossed “rest, lie at ease” (Ety/KHAW). This word also appeared in the contemporaneous Outline of Phonetic Development (OP1) from the 1930s as a derivative of ᴹ✶khagdā, but there its form was haeð (PE19/45), reflecting Tolkien’s uncertainty on the phonetic developments of agd and whether it became auð or aið > aeð.
In the Outline of Phonology (OP2) as first composed in the early 1950s, Tolkien initially retained the derivation from ✶khagdā as in The Etymologies (PE19/91-92 note #110). But he eventually decided that agd > aið > aeð, at which point he needed a new etymology for haudh “funeral mound”, so he changed √KHAG “pile up” to √KHAB.
Neo-Sindarin: For purpose of Neo-Sindarin, I’d use the circa-1959 derivation from √KHAB given above, with the caveat that I’d limit the sense “lay in store” to the extended root √KHAWAD, to allow the retention of various useful words derived from 1930s ᴹ√KHAW “rest, lie at ease”. I’d limit haudh to mounds associated with death (as well as tombs in general); for “mound” in the ordinary sense I would used [ᴺS.] tund.
Dor. heap, piled mound