Tolkien vocabulary I (serious) - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Pitchwife · 03-21-2011, 02:08 PM

Let's not forget eyot "small island", another favourite word of the Professor's, which is a curious linguistic bastard, consisting of OE eg "island" (which still survives in such place-names as Bardsey, Orkneys) with a French diminutive suffix tagged on.

Interestingly, the already much discussed fey "doomed to die" has a cognate in German feig, which originally had the same meaning as in English and is still so used in the Nibelungenlied, but has shifted to meaning "timid, cowardly, craven" in Modern German - quite the opposite of Tolkien's fey. Diachronic semantics is a funny thing.

03-21-2011, 02:08 PM	#38
Pitchwife Wight of the Old Forest Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Unattended on the railway station, in the litter at the dancehall Posts: 3,329	Let's not forget eyot "small island", another favourite word of the Professor's, which is a curious linguistic bastard, consisting of OE eg "island" (which still survives in such place-names as Bardsey, Orkneys) with a French diminutive suffix tagged on. Interestingly, the already much discussed fey "doomed to die" has a cognate in German feig, which originally had the same meaning as in English and is still so used in the Nibelungenlied, but has shifted to meaning "timid, cowardly, craven" in Modern German - quite the opposite of Tolkien's fey. Diachronic semantics is a funny thing. __________________ Und aus dem Erebos kamen viele seelen herauf der abgeschiedenen toten.- Homer, Odyssey, Canto XI