word

Creak

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Ominous wind through the trees, funny dwarven racket, creak of a gate into an unknown household, thin creaking, funny voices of very scary spiders.  The register of creaking depends entirely on context, but tends toward the scary, adventurous, and high.

  • 01.123 and the pine-trees on the Mountain creaking
  • 02.039 and creaking
  • 07.032 and the hobbit pushed open the heavy creaking gate
  • 07.097 The great door had creaked
  • 08.081 Their voices were a sort of thin creaking
  • 09.056 He heard the creak of the water-gate being hauled up,
  • 09.065 creaked and fretted.
  • 12.027 and blowing while the ropes creaked,

Cough

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

In contrast with the dwarves who are strutting about in Laketown in the previous paragraph, Bilbo

sneezed and coughed, and he could not go out, and even after that his speeches at banquets were limited to ‘Thag you very buch.’

while some coughs are deadly serious, these are funny and “low”.

  • 10.039 and coughed,

Chuckle

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

In Chapter 4, goblins chuckle who have taken Thorin & Company prisoner.  In Chapter 12, it is Smaug who chuckles at Bilbo’s riddling titles for himself.  The rest of the time, we have beneficent chuckles.  I think we must tag this one both “low” (as in comfortable, homey chuckling) and “high” (as in dangerous, adventurous).  OED tells us it’s an echoic word; other words are called imitative and still others are onomatopoetic.  For now I am calling them all onomatopoeia, and perhaps my understanding will grow; I will share the difference with you as soon as I know it, Word Fans!

  • 04.017 and chuckled
  • 06.015 that he just chuckled inside
  • 07.069 and burst into a chuckling laugh:
  • 07.121 he chuckled.
  • 07.123 he chuckled fiercely to himself.
  • 08.126 and chuckling to himself.
  • 12.058 and he chuckled

“chuckle, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 22 May 2015.

Chat & Chatter

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

It turns out that “chat” is the “onomatopoeic abbreviation of chatter”, and “chatter” is itself onomatopoeic.  I find this connection between Gollum and the Master of Laketown eerily satisfying.

  • 05.022 and chats with it a bitsy,
  • 14.030 but the Master ground his chattering teeth.

“chat, v.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 22 May 2015.

Bump

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Another word which sounds just like what it means.  Almost half of these bumps are from Chapter 9.

  • 03.012 or bumped his nose on the pony’s neck.
  • 04.045 said poor Mr. Baggins bumping up
  • 04.051 bumped his head on hard rock,
  • 05.008 not when their heads have recovered from being bumped.
  • 05.144 and avoid being bumped into,
  • 05.145 who could not make out what he had bumped into,
  • 07.108 and had rolled down with a bump from the platform on to the floor.
  • 08.059 bumping crash into trees,
  • 09.011 or for fear of being bumped into
  • 09.029 one of them bumped into another,
  • 09.038 and the bumping they would get inside,
  • 09.049 Down they go, down they bump!
  • 09.050 and a bump,
  • 09.056 and bumping mass of casks
  • 09.061 though a few went on to bump against the stony pier.
  • 13.015 when Bilbo fell forward down the step with a bump into the hall,