Primitive elvish
ñgur
root. death; to die
Derivatives
Element in
- S. guruthos “dread of death, death-horror, shadow of death, dread of death, death-horror, shadow of death, [N.] fear of death” ✧ PE17/095
Variations
- NGUR ✧ PE17/095; PE17/168
ñgūr
noun. wolf
Element in
- ✶ñguriyē “she-wolf” ✧ PE21/82
ñgurū
noun. death
Derivations
- √ÑGUR “death; to die”
Derivatives
- S. guru “death, death (abstract)” ✧ PE17/087
Element in
- S. Núrnen “Sad Water, Dead Water” ✧ PE17/087
Variations
- ngurū ✧ PE17/087
This is a root for “death” words from Tolkien’s later writings, most notably S. gurth “death” as in S. Gurthang “Iron of Death”, the name of Túrin’s sword. The earliest precursor of this name was G. Gurtholfin “Wand of Death”, where the element G. gurth “death” was derived from gu̯rþū́ (✱gwṛþū) or ᴱ✶ngwṛþ- in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/43). This in turn was a clear variant of ᴱ√GWṚÐṚ “die” from the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon, with Qenya derivatives ᴱQ. urdu “death” and ᴱQ. warda, though originally this root was just a variant of ᴱ√VṚÐṚ “✱rule” (QL/104).
In The Etymologies of the 1930s this root became ᴹ√ÑGUR with derivatives like ᴹQ. ñuru/N. guru “death” (Ety/ÑGUR), apparently as a state or abstract concept (Ety/WAN). This new root √ÑGUR “death” or “to die” continued to appear in Tolkien’s later writings as well (PE17/95, 154).