nelchaenen

ordinal. *thirtieth

nelchaenen

ordinal. thirtieth

a pherhael ar am meril suilad uin aran o minas tirith nelchaenen ned echuir

to Samwise and Rose the King’s greeting from Minas Tirith, the thirty-first day of Stirring

nelchaenen

thirtieth

(SD:129) The word is translated ”thirty-first”, but clearly seems to mean literally ”thirtieth”: nel-chaen would express 3 (times) 10, plus ­-en as an adjectival ending to make this an ordinal. The conceptual validity of this form is however questionable, since Tolkien later dropped the root KAYAN (whence -chaen) as a root for words for ”10”.