ran

root. wander, stray, meander, go on an uncertain course, go aside from a course (commanded or self-chosen); err

This root first appeared as ᴹ√RAN “wander, stray” in The Etymologies of the 1930s with derivatives like ᴹQ. ranya-/N. rhenia- “to stray”, ᴹQ. ránen/N. rhaun “errant”, and ᴹQ. Rana/N. Rhân as names for the Moon (Ety/RAN). These Moon-names also appeared in earlier writings but without clear etymologies (LT1/192; GL/64). Such Moon names continued to appear in later writings, for example: Q. Rána “Wayward” (S/99). The root √RAN itself was mentioned quite frequently in Tolkien’s later writings with glosses like “wander, stray” (PE17/182), “wander, stray, go on uncertain course” (VT42/12) and “err, go aside from a course (commanded or self-chosen)” (PE17/78).

rānā

noun. moon

ran

noise

ran (ram-) noun "noise" (LT1:259, QL:79)

ceuran-

new moon

ceuran- ("k") noun "new moon" (compare Rána "moon"). The word is cited with a final hyphen, as if some final element is missing, but Rána could very well be reduced to -ran at the end of a compound. (VT48:7)

nornë lintieryanen

he ran as swiftly as he could, (lit.) he ran with his speed

nornë lintië

he ran quickly

lintië

swiftness, speed

lintië noun "swiftness, speed" derived from linta; also used as adverb "quickly", nornë lintië "he ran with swiftness", also more explicitly with pronominal suffixes and the instrumental ending -nen: lintieryanen "with his speed" (PE17:58)

hlóna

noise

hlóna (1) noun "a noise" (VT48:29, PE17:138). Also hlón.

masto

village

masto noun "village" (LT1:251)

vare

verb. err, stray

raun

noun. Moon

A word for “moon”, equivalent of Q. Rána, attested in later writings only as the element -rawn in the archaic form S. †cýrawn “new-moon”, in modern speech cýron (VT48/7). Based on its use in this word, as well as in N. cúran “crescent moon” [ᴺS. cúron], it seems this is the ordinary word for “Moon” (or “moon”) as a celestial body, as opposed to S. Ithil which is the proper name of the moon, equivalent to English “Luna”. Raun is derived from primitive ✶rānā from the root √RAN “wander”, and hence originally meant something like “Wanderer”, though its Quenya equivalent is usually translated “Wayward”.

Conceptual Development: A very similar form G. Rân “the moon” appeared in Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/64), as well as ᴱN. rán “moon” in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s (PE13/152), though in this period its etymology is unclear. It appeared as N. Rhân “Moon” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, derived from the root ᴹ√RAN “wander, stray” (Ety/RAN), but in this period its Quenya equivalent was ᴹQ. Rana with short a. In later writings the Quenya form became Q. Rána, requiring a change to S. Raun since ancient ā became au in Sindarin.

raun

moon

(pl. roen, idh roen), coll. pl. ronath. Cf. the ending -ron at the end of month-names. Raun is basically the adj. ”straying, wandering” used as a noun, hence identifying the Moon as ”the Wanderer”. – The ”Noldorin” form rhân presupposes a different primitive form and may not correspond to S ✱rân as would normally be supposed.

ithil

noun. Moon

The usual name for the Moon in Sindarin, from an augmented form of the root √THIL (Let/425; Ety/THIL). This word is most likely the proper name of the Moon, analogous to English “Luna”: in The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien indicated Ithil was a “poetic name”. Compare this to S. Raun “Wanderer”, which is more descriptive of the nature of the body and hence closer to “Moon” (and “moon”).

Conceptual Development: The first precursor to this name seems to be G. Thilim “Moon” in an early list of names (PE14/13). This became G. {Thil >>} Sil “Rose of Silpion, Moon” (GL/67, 72) and G. {Thilmos >>} Silma in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/33, 67), both derivatives of the early root ᴱ√SILI as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (LT1A/Sil). The name Ithil first appeared in early versions of the tales of Númenor from the 1930s (LR/41).

lhôn

noun. noise, noise; *phone (in linguistics), speech sound

A word for “noise” appearing in a list of roots for sound words from 1959-60, derived from the root √(S)LON (PE17/138).

Neo-Sindarin: In a post on 2024-05-07 from the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS), Luinyelle suggested this word could also mean “phone, speech sound”, based on Q. hlonitë “phonetic”. I personally recommend fuller paethlon in cases where a simple lhôn would be ambiguous.

cýron

new moon

cýron (i gýron), pl. cýroen (i chýroen). Archaic *cýraun, spelt cýrawn in the source (VT48:7).

gobel

village

(walled village or house) gobel (i **obel) (enclosed dwelling, ”town”), pl. gebil (i ngebil** = i ñebil). Archaic pl. *göbil.

ithil

moon

(= ”the sheen”)

raw

roaring noise

(rush), pl. roe (idh roe);

renia

wander

renia- (sail, fly, stray) (i renia, idh reniar).

renia

wander

(sail, fly, stray) (i renia, idh reniar).

nîlu

noun. moon

A noun translated as “moon” and fully declined as an example of a Strong II noun (SD/431). It appears with both a short and long final -u, but Tolkien indicated that the form with long û is actually the personified form Nîlû “Man in the Moon” (SD/426), perhaps the Adûnaic name of Tilion. Tolkien also listed the “later forms Nil, Njūl” (SD/306), one of which may be the Westron word for “moon”, most likely Wes. nil. Andreas Moehn suggested (EotAL/NUL) that this noun may be related to nûlo/nûlu/nâlu, but given the evil connotations of these words (SD/306) and the different stem vowels, this seems unlikely to me.

rhân

noun. Moon

ithil

noun. Moon