Primitive elvish

neb

root. turn towards (speaker), turn towards (speaker), *front

A root glossed “turn towards (speaker)” appearing in notes on the words and phrases in The Lord of the Rings from the late 1950s or early 1960s serving as the basis for nef “on this (the speaker’s) side” (PE17/27). It replaced a deleted form √NIB, indicating it likely replaced the root ᴹ√NIB “face, front” from The Etymologies of the 1930s which had derivatives like Dor. nef “face”, Dor. nivra- “to face, go forward”, and N. nîf “front, face” (Ety/NIB); the last of these could still be derived from √NEB > nēb > S. nîf.

Changes

  • NIBNEB ✧ PE17/027

Derivatives

  • nebā “on this (the speaker’s) side” ✧ PE17/027; PE17/027
    • S. nef “hither, on this (the speaker’s) side of; †beyond [loose translation], hither, on this (the speaker’s) side of; †beyond [loose translation]; *near” ✧ PE17/027
  • ᴺQ. nev- “to face, turn toward, *confront”
  • ᴺS. nevia- “to localize, bring close, translate (into your own language), translate (into another language when used with the dative case)”
  • ᴺS. nevra- “to face, go forward”

Element in

  • ᴺQ. avanev- “to avoid, (lit.) refuse to face”

Variations

  • NIB ✧ PE17/027 (NIB)
Primitive elvish [PE17/027; PE17/167] Group: Eldamo. Published by