“Skrike”, to utter a shrill, harsh cry, has the very cool past participle “skryȝte”. OED says “dialectical” and therefore this fabulous word earns the “low” tag.
“skrike, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
“Tomnoddy” means a foolish or stupid person and Tolkien says right there in the text that it’s an insult. We’re tagging it as “low”. Trivia, Tom-Noddy is also a local name for a the puffin (Fratercula arctica). Notice something that Tolkien does now and then? He has made a compound word out of a hyphenated one (click here for our discussion of making hyphenated words out of two singles). There are more examples which we will be interested in later, and these feed my theory of Tolkien reminding us that he is merely translating from Bilbo’s Westron writings.
“Tom-noddy, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
This interjection indicates inarticulateness. Thank you, OED. Definitely low and funny.
“um, int.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
“Wrought” is the archaic past participle of the very common word “work”, but I simply couldn’t bear to throw it away.
While the past participle “laden” is not archaic, the present form is!
“lade, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
The old plural of “cow”. Some Middle English and earlier plurals were formed with and “n” ending (housen = houses, eyen = eyes, oxen). This word appears in an elven poem, so it gets a double boost in register!
“kine, n.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
“Bode” is archaic, but “forebode” is not. I am fascinated. Based on “bode” and since foreboding is certainly uncanny, I have given it a high tag.
“bode, v.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
“forebode, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
Uncanny – in meaning 4 “not to be trusted as being associated with supernatural arts or powers” – made perfect sense as the opposite of canny – “wise and safe and to be trusted.” Gandalf is both uncanny and canny in these senses, as he is wise and eminently trustable and good. This word is a Scottish regionalism and here I am eating another slice of humble pie, as the word is used not for low effect but by painting the picture with mystery and magic, to heighten the passages.
“unˈcanny, adj.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
I believe that in Chapter 2, we have meaning 5b: “lucky or safe to meddle with.” Thorin says it when he’s sending Bilbo off to investigate the trolls
“canny, adj.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
I am learning humility.
The word “delve” is labelled by the OED as northern and Scottish – and right up against Wales, one source says it is specifically to dig two spades deep. Clearly that’s a regional, parochial word, one which I should by my own arbitrary rule tag as “low”. It’s also in the middle of a rather high-register poem in a position rhyming with “elves”, which by any first approximation should make it be tagged “high”. I have tagged it both.
“delve, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.
words that you were saying 