10K

Orc

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I thought I had made a grievous error.  In scanning through the Os to find words to eliminate, I found “orcs” but not “orc”.  Baffled that “orc” would be in The Ten Thousand, I checked that list and found “force” and “divorce” but not “orc” by itself.  Frantic that I had mistaken “force” for “orc” at some point and eliminated them all, I raced to my backup copies of words and found the same thing.  The text confirms.  “Orcs” is used twice in the entire text and “orc” none at all, except in the compound word “Orcrist”.  The monsters in the mountains of this work are “goblins”.

Orcs (the word is as far as I am concerned actually derived from Old English orc ‘demon’, but only because of its phonetic suitability) are nowhere clearly stated to be of any particular origin. But since they are servants of the Dark Power, and later of Sauron, neither of whom could, or would, produce living things, they must be ‘corruptions’. They are not based on direct experience of mine; but owe, I suppose, a good deal to the goblin tradition (goblin is used as a translation in The Hobbit, where orc only occurs once, I think), especially as it appears in George MacDonald, except for the soft feet which I never believed in. The name has the form orch (pl. yrch) in Sindarin and uruk in the Black Speech.

The OED says that “orc” is more likely derived from ogre and cites a phrase in Beowulf –  “elves and orcs”.  OED credits Tolkien with reviving an obsolete word.  Because of Tolkien, the word is neither obsolete nor archaic.  Since he revived it, however, I am giving this word those tags.

05.133 the orcs of the mountains
07.151 and orcs of the worst description.

“orc, n.2.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 9 May 2015.

Tolkien, J.R.R. (2014-02-21). The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Kindle Locations 3759-3765). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

Dursn’t

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Gollum has his own category of words, such as “iss” and “preciouss”, which would have been knocked out when the Python script eliminated The Ten Thousand most common words but for his speech impediment.  I have just crossed out another one which I believe deserves special mention.

Dursn’t is not simply the negative form of dare.  Google’s Ngram function reports that “dursn’t” and “dassn’t” were used in roughly the same proportion from 1800 until now – less than 20 times as frequently as “daren’t”.  Gollum uses a less common form, enhancing his hermit reputation.

  • 05.124 But we dursn’t go in,
  • 05.124 no we dursn’t.

I will find out if any of my local libraries subscribe to the OED on line in order to better research the antiquity of words.  If not, I will be taking advantage in May of the OED’s free 30 day trial – more answers then.

OED update!  The word history of “dare” is a fascinating rabbit hole and I highly recommend it as summer reading.  The letter S plays a merry game of hide-and-seek in this word.  “Durst” is given as a past tense, co-equal with “dared” and listed first which I believe means that it is attested as older – it’s also tagged as colloquial in some uses.  Is Gollum using it in the present tense?

Leant

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We must also say farewell to “leant” as the perfect form of “lean”.  Although it sounds old to my ears, Google’s Ngram viewer tells me that it was in fairly robust use from 1870 through 1930, so I believe I must not call it archaic.  It’s in the category, I believe, of “dreamt”, a word of my mother’s.  In fact, the Oxford English Dictionary teaches us that “leant” is the straightforward past participle (note that Tolkien does not use it participally in the sample below.  Intriguing).  As “lean” is solidly in the Ten Thousand most common words, away it goes, along with leapt!

Note also that now I have discovered Google’s Ngram viewer.  Someone feed my kids, I have more exciting things to play with!

• 08.001  that leant together,

“lean, v.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 3 June 2015.

Immeasurable

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Now, “measure” is in the Ten Thousand most common words.  Is “immeasurable” part of that lemma?  I think it is, word fans, although it has both a prefix and an suffix trying to disguise it.  You see how craftily the words are hiding?  Also, we have made it to the letter I on our first pass.  I have included “immeasurable” as an uncommon word until we have thought over just how finely to separate out our words.  Wouldn’t want it to get lost!

  • 12.014  with wings folded like an immeasurable bat.

Backward

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I am rolling through my task of eliminating those words from the concordance which are inflected forms of The Ten Thousand.  I am trying to be ruthless, although my heart hurts as we lose some beauties like “clad”, an elder past participle form of “clothe”.  “Clothes” – the noun – is one of the Ten Thousand.  Does that eliminate the verb “clothe”?  Frankly I might put back “clad” when all is said and done by means of an argument about the archaicness and beauty of its form.

But really, can I afford to keep all the lovely words?  Does that not bias my method?  Does that not leave me with a boatload more words to work with than might be wise for a project of such limited time and resource?  Alas.  For now I will at least try to be ruthless.  Fortunately, I can write a little swan-song here for them.  For a regular present tense noun, if I see the 3d person singular, such as “knits”, I take notice, check The Ten Thousand, find “knit” there, and eliminate “knits” from our consideration.  I’m alert now to the -s ending.  But what about the lack of it?

Tonight’s observation, Hobbit fans, is that “backwards” is among The Ten Thousand, but “backward” is not.  I learn that “backward” as an adjective (I shot him a backward glance) is the usual (but not exclusive) spelling, and that “backward” as an adverb (… and then I fell backwards) is sometimes spelled with the s (but not exclusively).  The -s is more common in British than American writing.  Well, bless.

“Backward”. OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web.

Eyebrows

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“Eyebrows” appear five times in The Hobbit, and four of those times they are bushy.

  • 01.008 But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows
  • 01.100 and stuck out his bushy eyebrows,
  • 06.024 He gave Bilbo a queer look from under his bushy eyebrows,
  • 07.038 with his bushy black eyebrows.
  • 08.107 and eyebrows,

Three times they are Gandalf’s eyebrows, once Beorn’s and once Fili’s.  I find it interesting that eyebrows are mentioned only in the first half of the book – surely Gandalf looked gruffly out from under them when he was camped with Bard, surely someone’s got singed in the dragon-attack.  I’m having an idea.

I’ve read general agreement that the tone of The Hobbit changes around chapter 10.  I hypothesize that the moment when Thorin says

  • 10.020: “I am Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror”

is the inflection point in the theoretical graph of changes in diction in this work.  I believe that eyebrows are funny, particularly bushy ones, and their comic value keeps them unmentioned in the higher-register second half of the book. Not that Tolkien sat himself down with a list of funny words and said, “None of you shall appear after Barrels Out of Bond!” but that they simply weren’t the right tools for the job after that point.  I take it upon myself to make the theoretical graph a reality – those who know me know I am unable to resist!