orvincë

 noun. little apple, pommel

Compound consisting of orva "apple" [PE13/116] and -ince diminutive ending [UT/195].

Alternative

From Members Gilruin and Luinyelle: "The semantic space is partially occupied by TOL/NDOL- > tolma “protuberance contrived to serve a purpose, knob, short rounded handle”, tolmen “ boss (of shield)”, dolt “round knob, boss”."

Compound word reasoning

Orvincë was chosen instead of orvaincë for aesthetic beauty as well as simplicity of speech. To my knowledge, no Quenya word begins with orvi, thus generating no conflict with the compound word form.

Pommel origin

From Etymonline © 2022 (confirmed by Webster-Mirriam © 2022) mid-13c., pomel, "ornamental knob or ball, decorative boss;" c. 1300, "knob at the end of the handle of a sword hilt or the grip of a dagger," from Old French pomel (12c., Modern French pommeau), "rounded knob," diminutive of pom "hilt of a sword," and directly from Medieval Latin pomellum, diminutive of Latin pomum "apple" (see pomona), the connecting notion being "roundness." It serves to keep the hand from slipping and for striking a heavy blow at an adversary too close for the sweep of the weapon.

Though process

The word pommel is Franco-Latin in origin and refers to the knob at the end of a European style sword as a little apple. It seems appropriate that Quenya, which is flowing like French and is often referred to as "Elf Latin" should also refer to the balancing knob at the end of a sword as a "little apple." English also uses pommel as the primary word for a knob at the end of a sword handle.

ai reduction

From Member Gilruin: "Erkenbard [demonstrated] the reduction ai → i before clusters is supported by alda + inga → aldinga" (VT47:28)