kemen

earth

kemen noun "earth"; see cemen.

cemen

kemen

cemen (cén) (spelt "kemen" in some sources, "cemen" in others)noun "earth" (VT44:34), Cemenyë ("k") "and Earth" (VT47:11). Cemen refers to the earth as a flat floor beneath menel, the heavens (SA:kemen); "soil, earth"_ (KEM,__LT1:257). At one stage, Tolkien intended cemen to be the genitive of cén; later cemen became the nominative, and the status of cén is uncertain. See Kementári. Locative cemessë, cemenzë (really spelt with c rather than k in one version, but also kemenze) in the Quenya Lord's Prayer; later changed to kemendë, cemendë (VT43:17)_

cemen

noun. the earth; earth, the earth; earth, [ᴹQ.] soil

Tolkien often used this Quenya word for “the Earth”, but in notes on Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings (WPP) from the late 1950s or early 1960s, he clarified that “kemen ‘the Earth’ [was] an apparent flat floor under menel [the Heavens]” (PE17/24). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, ᴹQ. kemen was glossed “soil, earth” (Ety/KEM), and ᴱQ. kemen had these same glosses in Early Qenya words lists from the 1910s and 20s (PE16/139; PME/46; QL/46). Thus it seems this term can be used of both “earth” in the ordinary sense of “soil” as well as “the earth”, but in the latter usage it referred more specifically to the habitable surface of the world rather than the entire planet, serving as its “floor” as opposed to the “roof” which was menel. More common terms for the entire world were Ambar and Arda.

Conceptual Development: As indicated above, Tolkien introduced this term in the 1910s, already as a derivative for the root ᴱ√KEME, and it retained this form and meaning thereafter.

Kementári

earth-queen

Kementári noun "Earth-queen", title of Yavanna (SA:tar). The Kemen- of this name was at one stage intended as the genitive of kén, kem- "earth", so that Kementári meant "Earth's Queen", but Tolkien later changed the Quenya genitive ending from -(e)n to -o. Apparently so as to maintain the name Kementári, he turned kemen into the nominative form; see cemen.

kementári

feminine name. Queen of the Earth

One of the names of Yavanna, a compound of cemen “earth” and tári “queen”, that is: “Queen of the Earth” (S/28). Normally, the [k]-sound in Quenya is written with a “c”, but Tolkien consistently wrote this name with a “k”, as he did with the names Melkor and Tulkas.

Conceptual Development: In the earliest Lost Tales, Yavanna’s second name was ᴱQ. Palúrien (LT1/66), glossed “Wide World” and given as a derivative of the root ᴱ√PALA “flatness” in the Qenya Lexicon from the 1910s (LT1A/Palúrien, QL/71). The name ᴹQ. Palúrien “Bosom of the Earth, Lady of the Wide Earth” also appeared in Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s (SM/78, LR/205), and in The Etymologies it was given as a compound of palúre “surface, bosom” and the feminine suffix -ien (Ety/PAL).

In Silmarillion revisions from the 1950s-60s, Tolkien replaced this name with Kementári (MR/157, 202). This was a partial restoration of one of her earliest names in the legendarium: ᴱQ. Kémi “Earth-lady, Mother Earth” (LT1/79, GL26), which may also be the reason for its unusual spelling.

cemendë tambe erumandë

on Earth as [it is] in Heaven

The fifth line of Átaremma, Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Lord’s Prayer. The first word cemendë “on Earth” is an assimilated locative form of cemen “earth”. The word tambë likely corresponds to “as”, while Erumandë “in Heaven” is an assimilated locative form of Eruman “Heaven”. The English words “it is” are not represented in the Quenya phrase.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> cemen-dë tambe Eruman-dë = “✱earth-on as [it is] Heaven-in”

Conceptual Development: In earlier versions of this phrase (I-V), Tolkien used menel for “Heaven”. Elsewhere, Tolkien said that menel referred to the dome of the sky or “the firmament”, and therefore was not proper for “Heaven” (MR/387, PE17/152), which is probably why he changed the word to Eruman in version VI of the prayer.

Tolkien experimented with various ways of comparing Earth to Heaven: ier ... ar tér (I), ier ... tier (IIa), ya(n) ... ar san (IIb) and san ... ya (III-IV), each probably meaning something like “as ... so ...”, as suggested by Wynne, Smith and Hostetter (VT43/16-7). In versions V and VI Tolkien switched to a single word “as”: sívë (V) and tambë (VI).

The English words “it is” are only expressed in version III-IV, with the Quenya verb na, appearing at the end of the phrase as is typical of declarative statements.

| |  I  |IIa|IIb|III|IV|V|VI| |{yé >> ye >>}|ier|ya(n)|san| | |menelle|menelze|menelde|cemende| |ar tér|tier|ar san|ya|sívë|tambe| |{kemenze >>}|cemenze|cemende|menelde|Erumande| | |na| |

cemendur

masculine name. *Servant of the Earth

Name of the 4th king of Gondor (LotR/1038). It was also the name of the third child of Axantur and grandfather of Hallacar (UT/210). The name seems to be a compound of cemen “Earth” and -(n)dur “-servant”.

cemi

earth, soil, land

cemi noun "earth, soil, land"; Cémi ("k")"Mother Earth" (LT1:257; the "Qenya" word cemi would correspond to cemen in LotR-style Quenya)

cemnaro

potter

cemnaro ("k")noun "potter" (TAN). First written as cemenáro (VT45:19).

centano

potter

centano ("k")noun "potter" (TAN, VT45:19)

cén

soil, earth

cén (cem-) ("k")noun "soil, earth"; see cemen (KEM)

mar

earth

mar (1) noun "earth" (world), also "home, dwelling, mansion". Stem mard- (VT46:13, PE17:64), also seen in the ablative Mardello "from earth" (FS); the word is used with a more limited sense in oromardi "high halls" (sg. oromar, PM17:64), referring to the dwellings of Manwë and Varda on Mt. Taniquetil (Nam, RGEO:66). The initial element of Mardorunando (q.v.) may be the genitive mardo (distinguish mardo "dweller"). May be more or less identical to már "home, house, dwelling" (of persons or peoples; in names like Val(i)mar, Vinyamar, Mar-nu-Falmar, Mardil) (SA:bar, VT45:33, VT47:6). Már is however unlikely to have the stem-form mard-; a "Qenya" genitive maren appears in the phrase hon-maren, q.v., suggesting that its stem is mar-. A possible convention could therefore be to use már (mar-) for "home, house" (also when = household, family as in Mardil, q.v.), whereas mar (mard-) is used for for "earth, world". Early "Qenya" has mar (mas-) "dwelling of men, the Earth, -land" (LT1:251); notice that in LotR-style Quenya, a word in -r cannot have a stem-form in -s-.

kemen

noun. earth

keme

noun. earth

ceven

noun. *Earth, *earth; Earth

A word for “Earth” used in the Sindarin translation of the Lord’s Prayer from the 1950s, in the phrase: bo Ceven sui vi Menel “on Earth as [it is] in Heaven” (VT44/21). It is clearly a cognate of Q. cemen of the same meaning, and like Quenya I suspect this word can be used for both “Earth” and “earth”. The more usual Sindarin word for “world” was amar, so I suspect that, where referring to the global realm, ceven meant more the “habitable surface of the earth” rather than the entire planet. See, for example Christopher Tolkien’s note on kemen “referring to the earth as a flat floor beneath menel, the heavens” from The Silmarillion appendix (SA/kemen).

Possible Etymology: If this word is indeed a direct cognate of Q. cemen < ✱kemen, it is not clear why the final n didn’t vanish as was usual in Sindarin; perhaps the Sindarin form was derived from a variant primitive form like kemenē. Alternately, it may be a back-formation from some inflected form, as happened with other similar words like S. aran and S. thoron.

bo ceven sui vi menel

on Earth as [it is] in Heaven

The fifth line of Ae Adar Nín, Tolkien’s Sindarin translation of the Lord’s Prayer (VT44/21). The first word is the preposition bo “on” (possibly a mutated form for po), followed by ceven “earth”. The third word is the preposition sui “as”, followed by vi the lenited form of mi “in” and menel “heaven”. There is no Sindarin equivalent for English “it is” in this phrase.

See the entry for the first line of this prayer for a discussion of the (mis)use of menel for “Heaven” in this phrase.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> bo Ceven sui vi Menel = “✱on Earth as in Heaven”

cae

noun. earth

This word is indeclinable, according to the Etymologies

ceven

noun. Earth

ennorath

noun. central lands, middle-earth

amar

earth

(archaic Ambar), pl. Emair

bâr

earth

(dwelling, house, home, family; land) (i mâr, o mbâr, construct bar), pl. bair (i mbair). Also -bar, -mar at the end of compounds.

cae

noun. earth

cae

earth

(i gae, o chae). No distinct pl. form even if there is a pl., except with article (i chae). For ”earth” as a substance, see also

cennan

potter

cennan (i gennan, o chennan), pl. cennain (i chennain)

cennan

potter

(i gennan, o chennan), pl. cennain (i chennain)

ceven

earth

1) ceven (i geven, o cheven), pl. cevin (i chevin) (VT48:23), 2) (world) Amar (archaic Ambar), pl. Emair; 3) bâr (dwelling, house, home, family; land) (i mâr, o mbâr, construct bar), pl. bair (i mbair). Also -bar, -mar at the end of compounds. 4) (maybe ”earth” as substance) cae (i gae, o chae). No distinct pl. form even if there is a pl., except with article (i chae). For ”earth” as a substance, see also SOIL.

ceven

earth

(i geven, o cheven), pl. cevin (i chevin) (VT48:23)

cêf

soil

(noun) 1) *cêf (i gêf, o chêf), pl. cîf (i chîf), coll. pl. cevath (suggested Sindarin forms of ”Noldorin” cef, pl. ceif). 2) maw (i vaw) (stain), pl. moe (i moe). Note: a homophone is an archaic word for ”hand”.

cêf

soil

(i gêf, o chêf), pl. cîf (i chîf), coll. pl. cevath (suggested Sindarin forms of ”Noldorin” cef, pl. ceif).

ennor

place name. central land, middle-earth

gwatha

soil

(verb) gwatha- (i **watha, in gwathar**) (stain)

gwatha

soil

(i ’watha, in gwathar) (stain)

maw

soil

(i vaw) (stain), pl. moe (i moe). Note: a homophone is an archaic word for ”hand”.

cevnor

noun. potter

coe

noun. earth

An indeclinable word given as {cíw >>} coe “earth” in The Etymologies of the 1930s as a derivative of the root ᴹ√KEM (Ety/KEM; EtyAC/KEM).

Possible Etymology: The primitive form of rejected cíw is given as ᴹ✶kēm and its derivation is clear: the long ē became ī and then the final m reduced to w after i as usual. The derivation of coe is more obscure, however. The likeliest explanation is that Tolkien imagined its ancient form with a slightly lowered vowel which he generally represented as ǣ in this period (in later writings as ę̄). According to the first version of the Tengwesta Qenderinwa and Comparative Vowel Tables from the 1930s (PE18/46; PE19/25), ǣ &gt; ei &gt; ai &gt; ae, and in The Etymologies itself, it seems ai often became oe instead of ae.

Neo-Sindarin: Updating the derivation of hypothetical ✱kę̄m would produced ᴺS. cae in Sindarin phonology. But given the obscurity of its derivation, I recommend using 1950s S. ceven for “earth” instead.

cef

noun. soil

A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “soil” derived from the root ᴹ√KEM “soil, earth” (Ety/KEM). It had a rather unusual plural form ceif which shows i-intrusion but not the usual i-raising of e to i; under ordinary phonetic developments the expected plural would be ✱cif. I can think of no good reason for this abnormal plural, but it would be ^caif if adapted to Sindarin. It is mostly moot since this word is very unlikely to be used in the plural.

amar

noun. earth

amar

noun. Earth

ambar

noun. earth

cef

noun. soil

cennan

noun. potter

cennan

noun. potter

A word for “potter” in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√TAN “make, fashion” as the equivalent of ᴹQ. kentano (Ety/TAN). The root ᴹ√KEM “soil, earth” had N. {cefnor >>} cevnor “potter”, the equivalent of ᴹQ. kemnaro, but N. cevnor was deleted even though ᴹQ. kemnaro was retained (EtyAC/KEM). There was a line drawn from kemnaro to forms ᴹQ. kentano and N. cennan in the margin, but both these marginal forms were deleted (EtyAC/KEM).

Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin I would use the form cennan “potter”, since it is the only undeleted form.

coe

noun. earth

This word is indeclinable, according to the Etymologies

gwatha-

verb. to soil, stain

hmaw

noun. soil, stain

maw

noun. soil, stain

dâira

noun. Earth

A noun translated as “Earth” in the final version of the Lament of Akallabêth (SD/247). It may be related to S. dôr “land”, as suggested by Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynn (AAD/13).

Conceptual Development: In the Lament of Akallabêth (first draft), this noun appeared as kamāt (SD/311).