Quenya 

nat

noun. thing

A Quenya noun for “thing” derived from the root √ “be, exist” (VT49/30, Ety/N²), so perhaps prehistorically simply “a thing that exists”. Its plural form nati is indirectly attested in the plural únati of its (strong) negation únat “a thing impossible to be or to be done” (VT39/26).

Conceptual Development: This word is well established in Tolkien’s writings, appearing all the way back in the Qenya Lexicon from the 1910s (QL/64). In its earliest iteration, its stem form was natt- and its plural was natsi, where [[eq|[ti] became [tsi]]] as was the usual pattern in Early Qenya. The word reappear in texts and notes from the 1920s (PE14/43, 72; PE15/32, 68, 78). In one early dictionary entry glossed more generally as “affair, matter, thing”, but this entry was deleted (PE15/68); in other early writings the word for “affair” was given as ᴱQ. natto (QL/64). The word reappeared in The Etymologies from the 1930s with a simplified stem form nat- given its Noldorin equivalent N. nad (Ety/N²). The word appeared again in the late 1960s in notes associated with Q. ná- “to be”, where it was given the primitive form ✶năta (VT49/30).

Derivations

  • năta “thing” ✧ VT49/30
    • “be (the same as another), exist”

Element in

  • ᴺQ. natto “affair, *matter, thing”
  • Q. únat “thing impossible to be or to be done”

Phonetic Developments

DevelopmentStagesSources
năta > nat[nata] > [nat]✧ VT49/30

ea

verb. be

be

Quenya [PE 19:48] Group: Mellonath Daeron. Published by

engwë

thing

engwë noun "thing" (VT39:7, VT49:28). Extrapolation may also point to *engwë as an emphatic dual inclusive pronoun "we" (thou and I), corresponding to the ending -ngwë.

engwë

noun. thing

Derivations

  • “be, exist”

Variations

  • engwe ✧ VT39/07

nat

thing

nat noun "thing" (NĀ2); compare únat. VT49:30 lists "năta, nat", but it is unclear whether năta is here a Quenya word or an etymological form underlying Quenya nat.

Sindarin 

nad

thing

1) nad (pl. naid), 2) bach (article for exchange, ware) (i mach, o mbach), pl. baich (i mbaich).

nad

thing

(pl. naid)

na

be

: The verb ”to be” is poorly attested. Apparently the root is na-. The imperative is attested as no, and nad (used = ”thing”) may be seen as an original gerund *”a being”. It seems that the copula ”is, are” (and ”was, were”?) can be omitted altogether, as in the ”Noldorin” sentence lheben teil brann i annon ”five feet high [is] the door” (AI:92), in Sindarin perhaps *leben tail brand i annon.

na

be

. The imperative is attested as no, and nad (used = ”thing”) may be seen as an original gerund ✱”a being”. It seems that the copula ”is, are” (and ”was, were”?) can be omitted altogether, as in the ”Noldorin” sentence lheben teil brann i annon ”five feet high [is] the door” (AI:92), in Sindarin perhaps ✱leben tail brand i annon.

na-

verb. to be

Sindarin [no aer i eneth lín VT/44:21,24] Group: SINDICT. Published by

no

verb. be!

Sindarin [VT/44:21,24] Group: SINDICT. Published by

bach

thing

(article for exchange, ware) (i mach, o mbach), pl. baich (i mbaich).

Adûnaic

nad Reconstructed

preposition. hind, *behind

A prepositional element only attested in the late (1968) word nadroth “hind-track”, referring to the wake behind a boat, so perhaps meaning “✱behind” (PM/376). It appears only as a prefix, but in the earlier Adûnaic grammar of Lowdham’s Report (1946), Adûnaic prepositions are used as suffixes (SD/435).

Cognates

  • Q. “before (of time); at back (of place), before (of time); at back (of place); [ᴹQ.] yester-; [ᴱQ.] after (of place), behind; after (only of time); than”

Element in

Primitive elvish

nad

root. hollow (of structures or natural features more or less concave with rising sides)

This root and ones like it were connected to the names of dales and vales for much of Tolkien’s life. A likely precursor is ᴱ√NAŘA [NAÐA] from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. nan(d) “woodland” and ᴱQ. nandin “dryad” (QL/64). Words like G. nand “field acre”, G. nandriol “rustic, rural”, and G. nandor “farmer” from the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon are probably derived from the same root, since G. nandir “fay of the country” in the same list is said to be a cognate of ᴱQ. nandin (GL/59). Another likely precursor is ᴱ√NḶDḶ or nḷřḷ [NḶĐḶ] from the Qenya Lexicon, given as nḷđ in the Gnomish Lexicon, with derivatives like ᴱQ. nal (nald-) and G. glith “dell” (QL/66; GL/40).

The unglossed root ᴹ√NAD appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s with derivatives like ᴹQ. nanda “water-mead, watered plain”, N. nadhor “pasture”, and N. nann “wide grassland” and so probably meaning something like “✱plain” (Ety/NAD); it had a rejected variant ᴹ√NÁNAD as well (EtyAC/NAD). √NAD appeared in notes from 1968 with the gloss “hollow (of structures or natural features more or less concave with rising sides)” and derivatives like Q. nanwa “a (large) bowl” and S. nand “valley” (NM/351). In these notes, primitive ✶nandē was described as meaning:

> ✱nandē “a valley, bottom”, originally used only of not very large areas the sides of which were part of their own configuration. Vales or valleys of great extent, plains at the feet of mountains, etc. had other names.

The most notable names in the early Legendarium using this root are ᴱQ. Tasarinan and G. Nan Tathrin “Land of Willows”, names that retained the same basic form and meaning in Tolkien’s later writings, except that the Sindarin form became S. Nan-tathren, and that Tolkien sometimes translated the name as “Valley of Willows” instead of “Land”. Indeed, the elements S. nan(d) and Q. nan(do) or nandë appeared regularly in names in Tolkien’s later writings, but almost always translated as “valley” or “vale”.

Neo-Eldarin: Since primitive ✶nandē referred as much to the plain at the bottom of the valley than the valley itself, I would assume Noldorin (and Neo-Sindarin) words having to doing with pastures could be extrapolate from that sense. For Neo-Quenya pasture words, however, I would use derivatives of ᴺ√NES; see that entry for discussion.

Derivatives

  • nadmā “a (large) bowl” ✧ NM/351
    • Q. nanwa “a (large) bowl” ✧ NM/351
  • nandā “hollow (not used of things empty inside but those open above)” ✧ NM/351
  • nandē “a valley, bottom (originally used only of not very large areas the sides of which were part of their own configuration)” ✧ NM/351
  • Q. nan(do) “(wide) valley, vale, (wide) valley, vale; [ᴹQ.] water-mead, watered plain; [ᴱQ.] woodland” ✧ NM/351
  • ᴺQ. narassë “pasture”
  • ᴺQ. narasta- “to pasture, *graze, give to feed”
  • S. nan(d) “vale, valley, vale, valley, [ᴱN.] dale; [N.] wide grassland; [G.] field acre” ✧ NM/351
Primitive elvish [NM/351] Group: Eldamo. Published by

năta

noun. thing

Derivations

  • “be (the same as another), exist”

Derivatives

  • Q. nat “thing” ✧ VT49/30
Primitive elvish [VT49/30] Group: Eldamo. Published by

Noldorin 

nad

noun. thing

Cognates

  • ᴹQ. nat “thing” ✧ Ety/N²

Derivations

  • ᴹ√NĀ/ANA “be, exist” ✧ Ety/N²

Element in

  • ᴺS. alnad “nothing”
  • ᴺS. illad “everything”
  • ᴺS. ilnad “everything”
  • ᴺS. nadren “real; possible (in sense possible to exist or think of)”

Phonetic Developments

DevelopmentStagesSources
ᴹ√N² > nad[nata] > [nat] > [nad]✧ Ety/N²
Noldorin [Ety/N²] Group: Eldamo. Published by

nad

noun. thing

Noldorin [Ety/374] Group: SINDICT. Published by

Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!

Qenya 

nat

noun. thing

Cognates

  • N. nad “thing” ✧ Ety/N²

Derivations

  • ᴹ√NĀ/ANA “be, exist” ✧ Ety/N²

Phonetic Developments

DevelopmentStagesSources
ᴹ√N² > nat[nat]✧ Ety/N²

Middle Primitive Elvish

nad

root. *plain, valley

Derivatives

  • Ilk. nand “field, valley” ✧ Ety/NAD
  • ᴹQ. nanda “water-mead, watered plain” ✧ Ety/NAD
  • N. nadhor “pasture” ✧ Ety/NAD
  • N. nadhras “pasture” ✧ Ety/NAD
  • N. nann “wide grassland” ✧ Ety/NAD

Variations

  • NÁNAD ✧ EtyAC/NAD (NÁNAD)
Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/NAD; EtyAC/NAD] Group: Eldamo. Published by

root. be

Derivatives

  • ᴹ✶eʒ- “to be”
    • ᴹQ. ea- “to be; to exist, have being, be found extant in the real world” ✧ PE22/122; PE22/122; PE22/122; PE22/122
  • ᴹQ. ea- “to be; to exist, have being, be found extant in the real world” ✧ PE19/048
  • ᴹQ. enge “ago, once (in past), †it was” ✧ PE19/048

Variations

  • Ē ✧ PE22/122
Middle Primitive Elvish [PE19/048; PE22/122] Group: Eldamo. Published by

ros

root. *plain

An unglossed root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with the derivative Ilk. rost “plain, wide land between mountains”, an element in the names Ilk. Nivrost “West Vale” and Ilk. Radhrost “East Vale” (Ety/ROS²). In later versions of The Silmarillion these names became S. Nevrast “Hither Shore” (S/119) and S. Talath Rhúnen “East Vale” (S/124), making it likely that ᴹ√ROS “✱plain” was abandoned.

Derivatives

  • Ilk. rost “plain, wide land between mountains” ✧ Ety/ROS²

Element in

  • Ilk. Nivrost “West Vale, West-dales” ✧ Ety/NIB
  • Ilk. Radhrost “East Vale” ✧ Ety/RAD
Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/NIB; Ety/RAD; Ety/ROS²] Group: Eldamo. Published by

Gnomish

nad

noun. *thing

Cognates

  • Eq. nat “thing”

Derivations

  • ᴱ√ “be, exist”

Variations

  • nân ✧ GL/59

nân

noun. *thing

Early Noldorin

nad

noun. thing

Early Noldorin [PE13/150] Group: Eldamo. Published by

Early Primitive Elvish

naða

root. *plain

Derivatives

  • Eq. nan “woodland, *land” ✧ LT1A/Nandini; QL/064
  • G. nand “field acre” ✧ LT1A/Nandini

Element in

Variations

  • NARA ✧ LT1A/Nandini
  • NAŘA ✧ QL/064
Early Primitive Elvish [LT1A/Nandini; QL/064] Group: Eldamo. Published by

ī

root. be

Derivatives

  • ᴱ✶-ya “present” ✧ PE16/140
  • Eq. e- “to be” ✧ PE16/140

Variations

  • ī ✧ PE16/140
Early Primitive Elvish [PE16/140] Group: Eldamo. Published by

Early Quenya

nat

noun. thing

Cognates

  • G. nad “*thing”

Derivations

  • ᴱ√ “be, exist” ✧ QL/064

Element in

Phonetic Developments

DevelopmentStagesSources
ᴱ√ > nat[natt] > [nat]✧ QL/064

Variations

  • neta ✧ PE15/78
Early Quenya [PE14/043; PE14/072; PE15/32; PE15/68; PE15/78; QL/064] Group: Eldamo. Published by

neta

noun. thing