thag

root. oppress, crush, press

Tolkien used a variety of similar roots for “(com)press”, often used as a way of explaining the initial element of the name Q. Sangahyando “Throng-cleaver”. In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s Tolkien had the root ᴱ√SAŊA “pack tight, press” with derivatives like ᴱQ. sanga “throng, tight mass, crowd” and ᴱQ. sanga- “pack tight, compress, press” (QL/81). Its Gnomish cognate G. thang “a crowd, crush, herd” implies the actual root was ✱ᴱ√ÞAŊA (GL/72).

The Etymologies of the 1930s had the root ᴹ√STAG “press, compress” with derivatives like ᴹQ. sanga “crowd, throng, press” and N. thang “compulsion, duress, need, oppression” (Ety/STAG). In etymological notes associated with Quenya prayers from the 1950s, Tolkien gave √THAG “oppress, crush, press” (along with a deleted fourth gloss “force”) with the derivatives Q. sahtië “pressure or force (to do something against one’s will or conscience)” (VT43/22). Tolkien’s continued use of Q. sanga “press, throng” and S. thang “pressure, oppression” indicate the ongoing validity of the root √THAG or √STAG.

Derivatives

• ✶thakta- “to pressure or force ([one] to do something against one’s will or conscience)” ✧ VT43/22
  • Q. sahta- “to induce”
  • Q. sahtië “pressure or force (to do something against one’s will or conscience)” ✧ VT43/22
  • S. úthaes “inducement to do wrong, *temptation” ✧ VT43/22
• Q. sanga “throng, press, pressure, press, pressure; throng, [ᴹQ.] crowd, pack; [ᴱQ.] tight mass; [ᴹQ.] crowded, packed”
• ᴺQ. sahtaitë “oppressive, tyrannical”
• ᴺS. thaes “attraction, temptation”
• ᴺS. thag- “to draw, pull”
• S. thang “oppression, pressure, oppression, pressure; [N.] compulsion, duress, need; [G.] crowd, crush, herd”

Variations

• thag- ✧ VT43/22