In this scene, dwarves and Bilbo bumble about in the dark and the dwarves are hushing Bilbo – the most quiet-footed of the company – when he stumbles. It’s a funny, low moment.
- 13.016 Sh! sh!’ they hissed,
Puff
The sound of effortful heavy breathing. Bilbo with his short little legs puffs along the passage – and even the draught of air in Chapter 13 which could have blown out his light only threatened to puff it out. Definitely funny and low.
- 01.038 he thought as he puffed along the passage.
- 01.095 and puffing on the mat,
- 02.020 Very puffed he was,
- 07.087 gasped Bombur puffing up behind.
- 08.055 gasped Bombur puffing up behind.
- 08.125 puffing and panting
- 12.027 puffing and blowing while the ropes creaked
- 13.008 and they made a deal of puffing
- 13.023 but it almost puffed out his light.
Poof
In the middle of the Great Goblin’s great chamber, poof! Gandalf works some of his pyrotechnic magic to effect a rescue. I’m certain that this moment of special sound effects was designed to break tension by causing at least one young listener to shriek with audience-fear and delight at being startled. It relieves the scene of danger with a moment of fun.
- 04.035 and the great fire went off poof!
Ow
Bilbo complains after a high-flavoured journey through amazing treasures and tunnels – and the OED calls this an imitative word. We include it in our list of onomatopoeic words and give it a “low” tag.
- 13.050 But, ow! this wind is cold!’
“ow, int.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
Baa
Let’s test another question: are all onomatopoeic words funny, and therefore low? At the top of the alphabet, we have the sound sheep make. They are Beorn’s sheep, altogether remarkable, and a big piece of fairy tale in the middle of a small epic. Definitely part of a funny scene, and we score it “low”.
[07.093] Then baa – baa – baa! was heard, and in came some snow-white sheep led by a large coal-black ram. One bore a white cloth embroidered at the edges with figures of animals; others bore on their broad backs trays with bowls and platters and knives and wooden spoons, which the dogs took and quickly laid on the trestle-tables.
- 07.093 Then baa – baa – baa!
Comely
The first meaning of “comely” applies to objects, and is archaic – but in reference to persons, “comely” is in current use. However, the meaning has moved a bit over the centuries. In the 1400s, “comely” was applied to kings and Christ and God and to ladies belied with false compare. Samples from the 1700s use “comely” as a homelier word – pleasing but not remarkable. Symmetrical with good teeth. Thranduil is clearly using the earlier meaning of “comely” when he compliments Bilbo worthiness to wear the mithril mail shirt compared to visible attractiveness.
- 16.040 than many that have looked more comely
“comely, adj.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
Coney
This word for the fur of a rabbit was rare in the 18th and 19th centuries then boomed again with the booming fur-trade of the later 19th century. As a work-related word, we are tagging it as low, as Bilbo seems to do when at first trying to wrap his head around whether Beorn as a “skin changer” is a person of lower station than himself.
- 07.021 a man that calls rabbits conies,
“coney, n.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
Confusticate
Bilbo wishes confustication on the dwarves, dwarves wish the same on him. OED calls this one colloquial and its etymology “Fantastic alteration of confound and confuse”, attested in the 1891 Farmer and Henley dictionary of American slang and… 1937, The Hobbit. We may have just been handed our own silver platter as collateral, but that’s just fine with me.
- 01.059 Confusticate and bebother these dwarves!’
- 06.012 confusticate him!’
- 08.064 Hi! hobbit, confusticate you,
“confusticate, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
Draggle
Recall our study of words beginning with “be-”? The prefix “be-” is, among other things, an intensifier, as it is in “bedraggled”. It became widely used in the late 16th century, and leaving it off of a modern word makes that word sound archaic without obscuring the meaning. “Draggle” is the diminutive verb for getting something wet by dragging it about through the swamp or similar. Only Thorin is draggled, and only right before he makes his Great Announcement that he is “Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, King Under the Mountain”
- 10.010 in his draggled beard;
- 10.020 and draggled hood.
“draggle, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
Gorlach, op.cit., p. 177
Elder, Eldest
These are the still-used comparative and superlative of “old”, but the OED calls them superseded by “older, oldest” and restricted in use, so I’m awarding an “archaic” tag. Those restrictions include formulaic language, such as in legal terminology, earning these words the “high” tag.
- 03.045 “He was the father of the fathers of the eldest race of Dwarves,
- 06.050 One of his elder cousins
- 09.008 who was the eldest left.
- 12.096 of his eldest son
- 18.032 for he was their mother’s elder brother.
- 19.038 in their friendship by their elders.
“elder, adj. and n.3.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
“eldest, adj.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
words that you were saying 