Author: lfsaldenbirch

Haste

lfsaldenbirch , ,

Gollum says only one word outside of The Ten Thousand (contrast his mouth-and-throat noises and his sibilance), and that is “hasty”.  I am amused to note that each person who hears it then says it to someone else, if only for a short run.

  • 05.081 We can’t go up the tunnels so hasty. (Gollum to Bilbo)
  • 16.033 Don’t be so hasty! (Bilbo to Bard)
  • 17.029 Not so hasty! (Bard to Thorin)

“Haste” in all of its forms presents itself more and more frequently as the action of the book increases pace, culminating in seven occurrences in Chapter 17.  It signifies the intensification of action, so I have tagged it “high’.

  • 05.050 haste!’ said Gollum,
  • 05.082 We can’t go up the tunnels so hasty.
  • 05.118 and make haste.
  • 05.118 Make haste!’
  • 08.102 run hastily backwards
  • 09.003 The king had ordered them to make haste.
  • 09.061 in haste from the king’s great doors.
  • 10.027 Now make haste
  • 13.047 From here it hastens to the Gate.
  • 14.042 he hastened now down the river to the Long Lake.
  • 15.021 Bid him hasten!’
  • 15.040 Come haste! Come haste! across the waste!
  • 15.040 Come haste! Come haste! across the waste!
  • 16.005 and snow is hastening behind them.
  • 16.033 Don’t be so hasty!
  • 17.028 but if you do not hasten,
  • 17.029 Not so hasty!
  • 17.031 and was now hastening to Dale.
  • 17.033 We are hastening to our kinsmen
  • 17.035 and they hastened back
  • 17.044 and they hastened night after night through the mountains,

Gollum’s idiolect

lfsaldenbirch

Gollum utters quite a few words which have common headwords, but did not get filtered out for three reasons:

S: Gollum either hisses or adds the S sound to 67 words.  Six times, “Precious” is spelled with two Ss on the end; twice there are three Ss, and once there are four Ss.  “Goblinses”, “eggses”, “losst”, “yess”, “uss”, “iss”, “quesstion”, and “nassty” all get an elongated sibilance.  He even adds Ss where there were previously none at all.

  • 05.022 and chats with it a bitsy,
  • 05.115 but it’s tricksy.
  • 05.117 and he’ll come creepsy

Onomatopoeia: Gollum does articulate that “horrible swallowing noise in his throat” (05.015) as well as several hisses.

Contraction: like one of the trolls, Gollum contracts “perhaps” to “praps”

  • 05.022 Praps ye sits here
  • 05.022 praps it does,

Attercop!

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

This good Old and Middle English word was used from the mid 1930s onward, which is a bit like being handed one’s own silver platter for collateral.  But!  We learn from Google’s Ngram viewer that it was also used from the mid 1800s right up to before publication of The Hobbit.  Most of those references seem to be dictionaries – philological attempts to gather rustic spoken words as the Grimms did, but also in the occasional written work.  The word survives as a fragment “cob” in “cobweb”

  • 08.096 Attercop! Attercop!
  • 08.097 Attercop! Attercop!
  • 08.098 no spider has ever liked being called Attercop,
  • 08.119 and ‘Attercop’ from among the trees away on the right.
  • 08.119 ‘Attercop’ made them so angry

Update 2015.06.08: since no spider has ever liked being called it, I am considering it an insult and tagging it “low”.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Annotated Hobbit.  Revised and expanded edition annotated by Douglas A. Anderson. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston. Print.

On the movement of language

lfsaldenbirch

I have expressed poorly that older forms of language hang on in more rural places.  No language changes from its Middle to its Modern form in a day or even a decade.

Elizabeth Mary Wright has said with elegance what I have only grunted.

many a delightful old word which ran away from a public career a century or two ago, and left no address, may thus be discovered in its country retreat, hale and hearty yet, though hoary with age.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Annotated Hobbit.  Revised and expanded edition annotated by Douglas A. Anderson. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston. Print. p 211.

Astonish

lfsaldenbirch ,

I am pleased to learn that “astonish” does not derive from a word meaning “turn to stone”, but from extonare (Latin), to be thunderstruck.

  • 03.009 Bilbo was astonished.
  • 03.020 “Most astonishing wonderful!”
  • 04.048 in their astonished eyes.
  • 06.014 Gandalf was as astonished as any of them,
  • 08.118 and to the great astonishment of the dwarves he vanished.
  • 08.121 and charged into the astonished spiders
  • 10.018 Their astonishment was enormous
  • 10.037 amid scenes of astonishing enthusiasm.

Harper, Douglas. “Astonish”. Online Etymology Dictionary. Web.

Absurd

lfsaldenbirch ,

Absurd is a word of Latin origin from ab-, an intensifying prefix, and –surdus, dull, deaf, or mute.

  • 01.004 absurd,
  • 01.136 Don’t be absurd!
  • 12.076 said Smaug absurdly pleased.
  • 13.038 but I expect I look rather absurd.

Harper, Douglas. “Absurd”. Online Etymology Dictionary. Web.

Abominate

lfsaldenbirch , ,

Abominate, to hate intensely, was used most often in the mid-1600s and tapered off.  Its derivatives “abomination” and “abominable” follow the same patterns, but have always been used with about ten times greater frequency.

  • 06.008 into those abominable tunnels to look for him,
  • 08.075 as it struggled to wind its abominable threads round

“Google Ngram Viewer.” Google Ngram Viewer. Web.

Troll dialect

lfsaldenbirch ,

The trolls have quite a few words which slipped through the “Ten Thousand” filter, but which turn out only to be dialect or accent variations on common words.  I present them for your curiosity as a table for ease of reading

anyways anyway 02.056 anyways?” said William.
a-arguing argue 02.084 “Who’s a-arguing?” said William,
ain’t be 02.087 We ain’t got no water,
afore before 02.067 “as I’ve said afore this evening.”
blimey blind 02.051 “Blimey, Bert,
d’yer’ do you 02.046 How much more d’yer want?
d’yer’ do you 02.062 How much more d’yer want?
gettin’ get 02.105 “The night’s gettin’ on,
ell hell 02.045 “What the ‘ell William was a-thinkin’ of
ere here 02.050 “‘Ere,
liar lie 02.086 “You’re a liar,” said William;
lumme love 02.053 “Lumme, if I knows!
nassty nasty 02.060 yer nassty little rabbit,” said he looking at the hobbit’s furry feet;
praps perhaps 02.060 “P’raps there are more like him round about,
runnin’ run 02.045 and the drink runnin’ short,
a-sneakin’ sneak 02.060 are there any more of your sort a-sneakin’
a-talkin’ talk 02.104 “Who are you a-talkin’ to?”
a-thinkin’ think 02.045 “What the ‘ell William was a-thinkin’ of
tomorrer tomorrow 02.044 if it don’t look like mutton again tomorrer,”
oo who 02.050 oo are you?” it squeaked,
yer you 02.046 “Shut yer mouth!”
yer you 02.046 “Yer can’t expect folk to stop here for ever
yer you 02.046 and a half between yer,
yer you 02.046 when yer’d have said ‘thank yer Bill’
yer you 02.053 What are yer?”
yer you 02.103 so shut yer mouth!” said Bert.
yer you 02.057 “And can yer cook ’em?” said Tom.
yer you 02.058 “Yer can try,” said Bert,
yer you 02.060 yer nassty little rabbit,” said he looking at the hobbit’s furry feet;
yer you 02.088 and yer can fetch the water yerself,
yer you 02.088 if yer say any more.”
yer you 02.100 “Then what did yer say
yer’d you 02.046 when yer’d have said ‘thank yer Bill’
yerself you 02.095 “Don’t talk to yerself!” said Tom.
yerself you 02.088 and yer can fetch the water yerself,
yerself you 02.089 “Shut up yerself!” said Tom,
yerself you 02.091 “Booby yerself!” said Tom.

Manflesh

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

The Oxford English Dictionary has man-flesh (hyphenated so) as a word attested since the seventeenth century.  Tolkien does not hyphenate it and only Tom the troll says it.  More on hyphenated words hereafter.  I merely observe my own little shudder to learn that the trolls have a word for this particular variety of meat.

  • 02.045 “Never a blinking bit of manflesh

Update 2015.06.08: I’m adding the tag “high” to this word to be consistent with later use of the tag – indications of danger are adventurous and thereby earn this tag.

“man, n.1 (and int.).” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 9 May 2015.