food

Smoke-ring

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Please note “smoke rings” with no hyphen at [04.013] and [07.116].  The Chapter 8 quote refers to blowing them back in the Shire.

  • 01.011 But I have no time to blow smoke-rings this morning.
  • 01.012 and blew out another even bigger smoke-ring.
  • 01.068 he sent a smaller smoke-ring from his short clay-pipe
  • 01.068 Then Gandalf’s smoke-ring would go green
  • 01.068 He was blowing the most enormous smoke-rings,
  • 01.068 he loved smoke-rings –
  • 01.068 of the smoke-rings he had sent up the wind over The Hill.
  • 04.013 and blew smoke rings,
  • 07.116 this is a splendid place for smoke rings!
  • 08.092 besides blowing smoke-rings,

Update 2016.05.02: I have added the “food” tag, as blowing smoke rings has to do with smoking, using a comforting consumable.  Caveat lector.

Hyphenated in its sub-entry.

“smoke, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/182698. Accessed 21 September 2017.

Seed-cake

lfsaldenbirch , , ,
  • 01.035 seed-cake, if you have any.’
  • 01.036 to fetch two beautiful round seed-cakes
  • 01.047 the seed-cakes were gone,

Pleas enjoy this sixteenth-century seed cake recipe!  Apparently any flavorful seed, such as caraway, anise, or cardamom is called for.

Hyphenated just so.

“ˈseed-cake, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/174759. Accessed 21 September 2017.

Honey-smelling

lfsaldenbirch , , ,
  • 07.025 and wide stretches of short white sweet honey-smelling clover.

English is short on olfactory words; I’m pleased that Bilbo’s native tongue (in which he was writing this memoir) has such an adjective.

Update 2017.09.14:  this is a perfectly good English word, says the OED!

“honey, n. and adj.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/88159. Accessed 14 September 2017.

Hawthorn-berries

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,
  • 06.039 not even hawthorn-berries.

The fruits of the hawthorn are pomes, not technically berries.  The most famous hawthorn of British legend is the Holy Thorn of Glastonbury, the site of King Arthur’s resting place.

While “pome” can refer to many different fruits such as apples and pears and hawthorn-berries, there is no separate word for the pome of a hawthorn, so this word is a specific word in Bilbo’s language that we do not have in English.

“pome, n.1.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/147472. Accessed 14 September 2017.