Hawthorn-berries

  • 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.

Gold-plated

  • 13.035 in a coat of gold-plated rings,

Although the nouns “gold-plate” and “gold-plating” are in OED, this word is not.  That seems very strange to me, so I double-checked.  “Plated” is a perfectly good adjective, and it seems that various combinations with the metal which is doing the plating does not make compound words, according to the OED editors.

“gold, n.1.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/79763. Accessed 13 September 2017.

“plated, adj.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/145355. Accessed 13 September 2017.