Rauros

noun. roaring foam

rau (“lion”) + ros (“foam, rain”) The original form of ros is probably ross with the final s dropped at the end of a polysyllable [HKF].

rauros

place name. Roaring Spray

The falls from S. Nen Hithoel past Tol Brandir (LotR/366, 373). It was translated as “Roaring Spray” in Tolkien’s “Unfinished Index” of The Lord of the Rings (RC/327). Its initial element is some derivative of the root ᴹ√RAW “✱roar” and the second element is ross “spray”.

Possible Etymology: The precise language of this name is unclear, but most of the nearby geographic features are named in Sindarin, as were the earlier forms of this name, making it likely this is a Sindarin name as well. In his Outline of Phonology from the 1950s, Tolkien gave this name as Rauros(se) “roaring-rain”, related to Q. raurō “lion” (PE19/99). This hints that this name might be Quenya, but I believe this example merely indicates the Quenya/Sindarin equivalents of this name: Q. Raurosse and S. Rauros.

Conceptual Development: In Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, the first name for these falls was N. Rosfein >> Rhosfein (TI/273, TI/283), revised to N. Dant-ruin >> Dant-ruinel (TI/283, TI/285) and finally to N. Rauros (TI/285, 316), the last of these names translated “Rush-rain, Roar-rain”.

Cognates

• Q. Raurossë “Roaring-rain”

Elements

Word	Gloss
RAW	“*roar”
ross	“rain; spindrift, spray, foam, rain; spray, spindrift, foam”

Rauros

Rauros

In his unfinished index, Tolkien glossed the name Rauros as "roaring spray". A pencilled annotation in a manuscript also gives the translation "Rush-rain" or "Roar-rain". In another manuscript, the name Rauros(se) is said to be composed of raw and ros, and meaning "roaring rain". It is noted that the repetition of r in a name is usually retained in those with "phonetic or onomatopoeic significance".