be

preposition. in; ?as, like, as, like; in

A preposition in the King’s Letter appearing as ben “in the”. Carl Hostetter’s suggested it is connected to the root √MI/IMI “in” via the strengthened form MBI that appears in Q. imbë “between” (VT31/19-20). David Salo instead proposed that it may be a cognate of Q. ve “as, like” derived from primitive ✶bē, suffixed with a form of the definite article -n and having the sense “as in the [Shire-reckoning]” (SG/226). This second option seems more likely to me; the primitive form ✶bē was not published when Carl Hostetter made his analysis.

Conceptual Development: There are some words in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s that have similar forms and the meaning “in”; see G. ba “in” for discussion (GL/21). The Gnomish Lexicon also had G. fel “like (as av.); as, like”, apparently meaning it was both an adverb and a preposition (GL/34). It might have been related to the early root ᴱ√VĪ “as” that was the basis for ᴱQ. ve “as, like” (QL/101), though why the Gnomish form has a voiceless spirant f rather than voiced v is unclear.

The Nebrachar poem from around 1930 has ᴱN. a “like” in the phrase dir avosaith a gwaew hinar “like a wind, dark through gloomy places” (MC/217).