indi
offspring of the valar
onna
noun. child, child, *offspring; [ᴹQ.] creature
A word for “child” appearing in various late notes and phrases (NM/31; PM/391; VT49/42), derived from the root √NŌ/ONO “beget, be born” and once appearing in a variant form onwe (PE17/170). Giving its derivation, its actual meaning may be closer to “✱offspring”, as first suggested to me by Tamas Ferencz.
Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies of the 1930s, ᴹQ. onna was instead glossed “creature”, though it was still derived from the root ᴹ√ONO “beget” (Ety/ONO).
Derivations
- √NŌ/ONO “beget, give birth to; be born, beget, give birth to; be born; [ᴱ√] become” ✧ PE17/170; PE17/170
Element in
- Q. Aulëonnar “Children of Aulë” ✧ PM/391
- ᴺQ. heconna “child born out of wedlock, bastard”
- Q. nai amanya onnalya ter coivierya “*may your (sg.) child be blessed throughout his/her life” ✧ VT49/42
- Q. nai calambar onnalda ter coivierya “*may your (pl.) child be light-fated throughout his/her life” ✧ VT49/42
- Q. Onnalúmë “Time of the Children”
- Q. Onnarië “Time of Children”
- Q. onya “my child”
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √ON/NO > onwe [onwe] ✧ PE17/170 √ONO/NŌ > onna [onna] ✧ PE17/170 Variations
- onwe ✧ PE17/170; PE17/170; PE17/170
Valarindi
offspring of the valar, their children begotten in arda
Valarindi pl. noun "offspring of the Valar, their children begotten in Arda" (sg. #Valarindë). (MR:49). Compare indi.
onwë
child
onwë noun "child" (PE17:170)
onwë
noun. child
sén
noun. child
Element in
- Q. Erusēn “Children of God” ✧ MR/423
- Q. Melkorsēni “Children of Melkor”
- Q. senya “*my child”
hína
child
hína noun "child", also hina used in the vocative to a (young) child (also hinya "my child", for hinanya) (WJ:403). Pl. híni (surprisingly not **hínar) in Híni Ilúvataro "Children of Ilúvatar" (Silmarillion Index); dative hínin in VT44:35. In compounds -hin pl. -híni (as in Eruhíni, "Children of Eru", SA:híni). According to one source, the word is hín(i) and solely plural (PE17:157), but this is obviously contradicted by some of the sources quoted above.
hína
noun. child
A word for “child” derived from the root √KHIN (PE17/157; WJ/403), most notably an element in Eruhíni “Children of God”, a term for Elves and Men as the children of Eru. This word illustrates that hína has an abnormal plural form: híni rather than the expected ✱✱hínar. A variant hina with a short i was “only used in the vocative addressing a (young) child, especially in hinya (< hinanya) ‘my child’ (WJ/403)”.
Conceptual Development: The term Êruhîn “Children of God” first appeared as an Adûnaic word in the 1940s (SD/247-8, 358), later adapted as Quenya Eruhíni and Sindarin Eruchîn, which seems to be the source of Q. hína and S. hên “child”. At one point Tolkien coined masculine and feminine variants Q. hindo and Q. hindë, but they were deleted (PE17/157). Tolkien occasionally used an alternate Quenya form sén (MR/423; UT/274), perhaps out of a desire to have a Sindarin form Eruhîn that was closer to the original Adûnaic form; this variant continued to appear as late as 1969, where sén was written below Eruhíni as a variant form in Late Notes on Verbs (LVS: PE22/158).
Cognates
Derivations
Element in
- Q. ar mi cemen rainë i hínin “and on earth peace, good will toward men” ✧ VT44/35; VT44/35; VT44/35
- Q. Eruhin “Child of Eru (God)” ✧ SA/híni
- Q. Híni Ilúvataro “Children of Ilúvatar” ✧ PE21/83; SI/Children of Ilúvatar
- Q. Melkorohíni “Children of Melkor”
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √KHIN > hīn(i) [kʰīni] > [xīni] > [hīni] ✧ PE17/157 ✶khīnā/khinā > hína [kʰīnā] > [xīnā] > [hīnā] > [hīna] ✧ WJ/403 Variations
- hina ✧ WJ/403
selda
child
selda adj.?noun? (meaning not clear, related to seldë "child" (meaning changed by Tolkien from "daughter") and seldo "boy". Thus selda may be an adjective "childlike", since -a is a frequent adjectival ending. Alternatively, as suggested in VT46:13, selda may be a neuter noun "child", corresponding to masc. seldo "boy" and fem. seldë "girl" (before Tolkien changed the meaning of the latter to "child"). (SEL-D, cf. VT46:22-23)
seldo
child
seldo noun (meaning not quite clear, likely the masculine form of seldë "child", hence *"boy") (SEL-D, VT46:13, 22-23)
seldë
child
seldë noun "child" (meaning changed by Tolkien from "daughter"; in his later texts the Quenya word for "child" is rather hína, and the final status of seldë is uncertain. See also tindómerel.) (SEL-D, VT46:13, 22-23) In one late source, Tolkien reverts to the meaning "daughter", but this may have been replaced by anel, q.v.
hilmë
noun. offspring, *descendant
Cognates
- ᴺS. hilf “posterity; one’s descendants, progeny, offspring”
Derivations
- √KHIL “follow (behind)”
hên
noun. child (mostly used as a prefix in patronymics or metronymics)
hên
noun. child
A word for “child” derived from the root √KHIN, more specifically from ✶khinā with short i which became e in Sindarin due to a-affection (WJ/403). It often appeared in its mutated plural form chîn in phrases like Narn i Chîn Húrin “Tale of the Children of Húrin” (WJ/160). This is pronounced with spirantal “ch” as in German Bach, not affricate “ch” as in English “church”.
Christopher Tolkien made the editorial decision to render this plural form as Hîn in The Silmarillion as published as well as in Unfinished Tales, where it “was improperly changed by me [Christopher Tolkien] to Narn i Hîn Húrin ... because I did not want Chîn to be pronounced like Modern English chin” (LR/322). It seems Tolkien himself had similar concerns, as he sometimes rendered its Quenya cognate as sén, which would have Sindarin forms ✱sên “child” and ✱i hîn “the children”. However, Tolkien’s motive was probably a desire to retain the early (originally Adûniac) form Ad. Eruhîn “Children of God”, which in Sindarin otherwise became Eruchîn (LB/354).
Cognates
Derivations
Element in
- S. Eruchîn “Children of Eru (God)”
- S. i chîn Húrin “*the children of Húrin” ✧ VT50/18
- S. i·Veleglind i eithro en estar i·Chîn Húrin “*the Great Song that is also called the Children of Húrin” ✧ VT50/12
- S. Narn i Chîn Húrin “Tale of the Children of Húrin” ✧ MR/373; S/198; SA/híni; UT/057; WJ/403
- S. Glaer nia Chîn Húrin “Tale of the Children of Húrin” ✧ WJ/160
- S. Sarch nia Chîn Húrin “Grave of the Children of Húrin” ✧ UT/140
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ✶khīnā/khinā > hên [kʰinā] > [kʰina] > [xina] > [xena] > [xen] > [hen] > [hēn] ✧ WJ/403 ✶khīnā/khinā > hîn [kʰinī] > [kʰini] > [xini] > [xin] > [hin] > [hīn] ✧ WJ/403
hilf
collective noun. posterity; one’s descendants, progeny, offspring
Cognates
- ᴺQ. hilmë “offspring, *descendant”
Derivations
- √KHIL “follow (behind)”
Element in
- ᴺS. hilvias “inheritance, heritage”
nothlir
family line, family tree
(no distinct pl. form; coll. pl. nothliriath)
noss
family
noss (construct nos, pl. nyss) (clan, house), also nost (pl. nyst) (house) (PM:360) or nothrim (house) with no distinct pl. form (PM:360). Also bâr (dwelling, house, home; land, earth) (i mâr, o mbâr, construct bar), pl. bair (i mbair). The element appears in the forms -bar, -mar at the end of compounds.
noss
family
(construct nos, pl. nyss) (clan, house), also nost (pl. nyst) (house) (PM:360) or nothrim (house) with no distinct pl. form (PM:360). Also bâr (dwelling, house, home; land, earth) (i mâr, o mbâr, construct bar), pl. bair (i mbair). The element appears in the forms -bar, -mar at the end of compounds.
eruchen
children of the one
)
hên
child
hên (i chên), pl. hîn (i chîn); also -chen, pl. -chín at the end of compounds (e.g. Eruchín ”Children of Eru”). _(WJ:403) _CHILDREN OF THE ONE (Elves and Men as children of God) Eruchín** **(sg. *Eruchen)
hên
child
(i chên), pl. hîn (i chîn); also -chen, pl. -chín at the end of compounds (e.g. Eruchín ”Children of Eru”). (WJ:403)
khin
root. child
A root appearing in Notes on Names (NN) from 1957 with the gloss “child” (PE17/157), and again in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60 with the same gloss (WJ/403). It was the basis for the words Q. hína and S. hên “child”, which were probably inspired by the Adûnaic patronymic suffix -hin that Tolkien introduced in the 1940s as part of Êruhin “Child of God” (SD/358), originally an Adûnaic word but later on used in Sindarin (Let/345; MR/330). This root might be a later iteration of the early root ᴱ√HILI from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s whose derivatives had to do with children (QL/40). As evidence of this, the Adûnaic word was first given as Eruhil (SD/341).
Derivatives
Variations
- khin ✧ WJ/403
khīnā
noun. child
Derivations
- √KHIN “child” ✧ WJ/403
Derivatives
Variations
- khīnā/khinā ✧ WJ/403
nothlir
noun. family line (esp. as family tree, genealogical tree)
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!
aran
noun. child
This word first appeared as ᴱQ. ar (arn-) “child” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/32) and its stem form arn- appeared in the Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa (PME/32). The word reappeared in Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s (PE16/135), but in the Early Noldorin Dictionary the Qenya form was given as arne. In the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s, the word appeared as ᴹQ. aran (arn-) “child” (PE21/19), but there is no sign of it from this point forward, probably displaced by Q. aran “king”.
Derivations
- ᴹ✶arān
Variations
- aran ✧ PE21/19
seldo
noun. child, child [m.], *boy
A word for a (male) child in The Etymologies of the 1930s added to its entry when the meaning of the root ᴹ√SEL-D was changed from “daughter” to “child” (Ety/SEL-D). It was written above its feminine equivalent ᴹQ. selde and an apparently neuter form ᴹQ. selda was written to the right, making seldo likely the masculine form as suggested by Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynne (EtyAC/SEL-D), hence = “✱boy”.
Derivations
- ᴹ√SEL(D) “child, child; *daughter” ✧ Ety/SEL-D
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ᴹ√SEL-D > seldo [seldo] ✧ Ety/SEL-D
sel(d)
root. child, child; *daughter
A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s, initially glossed “daughter” but later “child” with derivatives ᴹQ. selde, ᴹQ. seldo, ᴹQ. selda = female, male and neuter “child” (Ety/SEL-D). In Notes on Names (NN) from 1957 Tolkien gave sel-de “daughter” (PE17/170), while S. sel(l) = “daughter” appeared in both the King’s Letter from the late 1940s (SD/129) as well as the Túrin Wrapper from the 1950s (VT50/5). The diminutive form for “daughter” appeared as Q. selyë in notes from the late 1960s (VT47/10).
Neo-Eldarin: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I prefer √YEL for “daughter” as a variant of ᴹ√SEL(D) under the influence of √YON “son”, mostly so I can still use the 1930s “child” words for other genders, at least in the Quenya branch. I would still use Q. seldë and S. sell for “daughter”, however, with a bit of semantic drift, with “girl” words becoming Q. nettë and S. neth.
Derivatives
Element in
- ᴹ✶Tindōmiselde “Nightingale, (lit.) Daughter of Twilight” ✧ Ety/SEL-D; Ety/TIN
- N. -iel “daughter; feminine suffix” ✧ EtyAC/YEL
Variations
- SEL-D ✧ Ety/SEL-D (
SEL-D); Ety/SEL-D; EtyAC/TIN- SEL ✧ Ety/TIN
- SELD ✧ EtyAC/YEL
gwarin(n)
noun. family
The word G. {gwaren >>} gwarin(n) “family” appeared in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, derived from primitive ᴱ✶ŋuarenđā (GL/44). It was a combination of G. gwa- “together” and G. renni “family” (GL/65), but it is not clear why the e became i in the compound.
Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin I would adapt this word as ᴺS. gwaren as a combination of later prefix gwa- “together” and the Neo-Root ᴺ√RE(N)D “kin”. Furthermore, I would use it specifically for a nuclear family (just the parents and children), as opposed to S. nos(s) which seems to refer to an extended family or clan.
Changes
gwaren→ gwarin(n) ✧ GL/44Derivations
- ᴱ✶ŋuarenđā “family” ✧ GL/44
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ᴱ✶ŋuarenđā > gwarin(n) [ŋʷarenðā] > [ŋgʷarenðā] > [gʷarenðā] > [gʷarenða] > [gʷarenda] > [gʷarenna] > [gʷaren] > [gʷarin] ✧ GL/44 Variations
- gwaren ✧ GL/44 (
gwaren); GL/65- gwarin ✧ GL/65
pui
noun. child
A noun in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “child” (GL/64), probably derived from the early root ᴱ√PU(HU) “generate” (QL/75).
Derivations
- ᴱ√PU(HU) “generate”
hilm
noun. posterity; one’s descendants, progeny, offspring
A noun appearing as G. hilm “posterity; one’s descendants, progeny, offspring” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, derived from the early root ᴱ√χili and cognate to ᴱQ. hilmie (GL/49). The Qenya cognate was apparently a variant of ᴱQ. hilmi “family, offspring” from the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon (QL/40).
Neo-Sindarin: I would adapt this word as ᴺS. hilf in Neo-Sindarin, since [[s|non-initial [m] usually became [v]]], which was spelled f at the end of words.
Cognates
- Eq. hilmi “family, offspring” ✧ GL/49
Derivations
- ᴱ√HILI “*youth, offspring” ✧ GL/49
Element in
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ᴱ√χili > hilm [xilm] > [hilm] ✧ GL/49
renni
noun. family
A noun in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “a family”, derived from the early root ᴱ√redh- having to do with kin (GL/65).
Derivations
- ᴱ√REÐE “kinsman” ✧ GL/65
eithlos
noun. family
A noun in the Gnomish Lexicon Slips of the 1910s glossed “family, etc.” of unclear derivation, though it may be related to G. eithog “ancestor, †father, sire” (PE13/113).
gwaren
noun. family
arn
noun. child, child, [G.] son
A word appearing as G. arn “son” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/20), also appearing with the same form and meaning in Gnomish Lexicon Slips modifying that document, but with a new plural form eirn (PE13/110). The word reappeared in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s but there its gloss was changed from “son” to “child” (PE13/137). In the Early Noldorin Dictionary of the 1920s its only gloss was “child” (PE13/160). There is no sign of this word thereafter.
Changes
arn→ arn “son” ✧ PE13/137Cognates
ar
noun. child
Cognates
- En. arn “child, child, [G.] son” ✧ PE13/160
hili
root. *youth, offspring
Changes
hili→ HIL ✧ QL/040Derivatives
Element in
- G. hilwed “adolescent” ✧ GL/49
Variations
- χili ✧ GL/49
- HIL ✧ QL/040
- hili ✧ QL/040 (
hili)
ŋuarenđā
noun. family
Derivatives
- G. gwarin(n) “family” ✧ GL/44
Elements
Word Gloss ŋu̯a “together, in one” REÐE “kinsman”
hilmie
noun. offspring
hilmi
collective noun. family, offspring
The word ᴱQ. hilmi “family, offspring” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as a derivative of the early root ᴱ√HILI (QL/39). In the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon, the word hilmie was given as the Qenya cognate of G. hilm “posterity, one’s descendants, progeny, offspring” (GL/49).
Neo-Quenya: I would adapt this word into Neo-Quenya as singular ᴺQ. hilmë “offspring, ✱descendant”, and use plural hilmi to refer to the entirety of one’s extended family, including all descendants. Among the Elves, the original ancestor would still be alive and able to interact with their descendants of all generations, so this would be a living rather than historical relationship.
Cognates
- G. hilm “posterity; one’s descendants, progeny, offspring” ✧ GL/49
Derivations
- ᴱ√HILI “*youth, offspring” ✧ QL/040
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ᴱ√HIL > hilmi [xilmī] > [xilmi] > [hilmi] ✧ QL/040 Variations
- hilmie ✧ GL/49
arne
noun. child
soresta
noun. family
The word ᴱQ. soresta “family” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as a combination of ᴱQ. so- “together” and ᴱQ. resta “kin” (QL/85).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya I would adapt this word as ᴺQ. orendë as a combination of later prefix Q. o- “together” and ᴺQ. rendë “kin”. Furthermore, I would use it specifically for a nuclear family (just the parents and children), as opposed to Q. nossë which seems to refer to an extended family or clan.
ar
noun. child
Cognates
- En. arn “child, child, [G.] son” ✧ PE13/160
Element in
Variations
- arne ✧ PE13/160
- ar ✧ PE16/135; QL/032
hil(de)
noun. child
Cognates
- G. hiltha “youth (more often masculine)” ✧ GL/49
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ᴱ✶χilþē > hilde [xilθē] > [xilθe] > [xilðe] > [xilde] > [hilde] ✧ GL/49 ᴱ√HIL > hil [xil] > [hil] ✧ QL/040 Variations
- hilde ✧ GL/49; PME/040; QL/040
- hil ✧ QL/040
indi pl. noun, apparently a name of Men, hardly valid in Tolkien's later Quenya (LT2:343). Compare, however, the final element of Valarindi "Offspring of the Valar", suggesting that #indi can be used for "offspring" (the Quenya word is apparently plural). It may be that in Valarindi, a h has dropped out following r, and that the independent word would be *hindi (as a variant of -hín, -híni "children").