word

Confusticate

lfsaldenbirch , , , , ,

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

lfsaldenbirch , , ,
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

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

These are the still-used comparative and superlative of “old”, but the OED calls them superseded by “older, oldest” and restricted in use, so I’m awarding an “archaic” tag.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.

Flummox

lfsaldenbirch , , , , , ,

This word is labeled “colloquial or vulgar” by the OED, so it earns the “low” tag, and the entry for its etymology is too fun not to share:

probably of English dialectal origin;  flummock slovenly person, also hurry, bewilderment, flummock to make untidy, disorder, to confuse, bewilder … The formation seems to be onomatopoeic, expressive of the notion of throwing down roughly and untidily; compare flump, hummock, dialect slommock sloven.

In our story, only beloved Bilbo is ever flummoxed.

  • 01.058 who was feeling positively flummoxed,
  • 01.090 he was so flummoxed.
  • 05.014 altogether flummoxed

“flummox, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.

Gammer

lfsaldenbirch , , , , ,

With its connotation of gossiper, this archaic word for grandmother has earned the “low” tag.  It is the feminine counterpart to “gaffer”, but The Hobbit does not use that word.  Instead, in this instance “gammer” is paired with “greybeards”

  • 10.018 and laughed at the greybeards and gammers who said

“gammer, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.

Glede

lfsaldenbirch , , , , ,

A live coal or ember.  Tolkien spelled it here as “glede”, a Middle English form of the word and also a dialectical word for a kite – a bird of prey.  Was he helping our imaginations to picture the coals and embers flying everywhere with deadly result?

  • 14.024 to sparks and gledes.

“glede | gled, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.

“gleed, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.

Ho!

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

Heave ho! is the sort of thing one chants when hauling on the lines of a sailing ship in order to keep time with other sailors.  As a kind of work song, I’ve tagged it as low.  Beorn’s use of it in Chapter 7 is not the same, but we’ll keep it here as an interjection and non-lexical vocable.

  • 04.020 Ho, ho! my lad!
  • 04.020 Ho, ho! my lad!
  • 04.022 and to the ugly laughter of their ho, ho! my lad!
  • 04.022 and to the ugly laughter of their ho, ho! my lad!
  • 07.042 O ho,
  • 09.049 Heave ho! Splash plump!

No citation.  I grew up in a region where learning 18th century nautical history and jargon and drinking songs were just part of the local picture.

Lob

lfsaldenbirch , , , , , ,

A “lob” – obsolete word – is a spider from Old English loppe.  But it’s also (separate word, spelled the same) a dialectical word for country bumpkin or a lout (a Scandinavian-rooted word).

Oh, yes.  This is why I did this.  One syllable.  Two obsolete words.  Classic bullying technique – what’s wrong with me calling you a spider?  It’s just a word for spider!  But we both know it means lout – and in Norse it means short and fat and clumsy and bumpkin.  Bilbo needed to pull out the big guns, word-wise, to distract the spiders from his friends, and he did it in three letters.  The master craftsman at play.

08.100 Lazy Lob and crazy Cob
08.119 Soon there came the sound of ‘Lazy Lob’

“† lob, n.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.

“lob, n.2.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.

Lust

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

This word’s obsolete meaning of desire descends from earlier meanings such as pleasure and delight, spotted in King Alfred’s translation of Boethius around the year 888.  The parallel and interlocked meaning of sexual desire is attested from about the year 1000, and seems to be locked with the descriptor “fleshly” in theological writings for a few centuries.

  • 12.015 but the splendour, the lust,
  • 15.049 and the lust of it was heavy on him.

“lust, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.

Mead (meadow)

lfsaldenbirch , , , , ,

While we contemplate this regional word for meadow, let’s enjoy some fermented honey and water.  Mead the drink is discussed here and the honey comes from flowers, which meadows certainly have!  It’s a low word… in a poem sung by elves.  Fascinating.

  • 09.053 Back to pasture, back to mead,

“mead, n.2.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.