[Fordim Hedgethistle]

EDIT: This post was originally put up as the beginning of a new thread, but if you read through the next few posts you'll see how and why it was quickly, and quite rightly, merged with Esty's brilliant thread from two years ago.

----------------------------

Everybody knows how important words were to Professor Tolkien. The names, places, and languages of Middle-Earth are a rich and wonderful storehouse of witty allusion, learned jests and low puns. Things like “Smaug” from the Old German verb ‘smugan’ which means “to squeeze through a small hole.” Or “Frodo” from ‘frodá’: “wise by experience.”

It seems to me that we, his most devoted followers, owe it to the Professor to pick up where he left off and to recover for ourselves the meanings of the names and words that he invented. What he did with the languages of the past, we should do with the languages of his works.

Let us create new words from those of the Professor, with which to describe things that currently lack a word of their own. For example:

sheorc, (she + orc) pron. sheYORK (noun): A hypothetical or speculative monster or creature; a person or concept that logic dictates should exist, but for which there is no empirical evidence.

Example: an honest lawyer; an exciting accountant; a good reason to hate The Lord of the Rings.

to balrog, pron. BAL-rog (verb): To seek unthinking vengeance upon those who have done you no harm; to absolutely lose it and rage about in a fury; “wigging out.”

Example: “I was so mad when the neighbors cut down their crabapple tree that I balrogged at them for three hours.”

legolass, pron. LEG-oh-lass (adjective): Attractive and capable, but not terribly perceptive or interesting; flaky, or like a bimbo (not necessarily pejorative).

Example: “Nicole Kidman gets more and more legolass every time I see her.”

frodosam: pron. Fro-DOH-sam (noun): A perfectly suited pair; two people so closely associated with one another that they seem one, and inseparable.

Example: “My grandparents are a real frodosam” or “Britney Spears and Hilary Duff are in danger of forming the world's first frodosam of bad taste.”

What other new words can we come up with?