word

Befall

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This use of “be-” intensifies the verb; I am pleased to note that in this use, “befall” takes an indirect object, that least visible of Modern English cases.  This use of befall is not archaic although others (which have more to do with inheritances or actual objects on one’s head) are listed as obsolete!

  • 08.129 They wondered what evil fate had befallen him,

Fate doesn’t just fall on someone, but crashes all down around; here the dwarves wonder about Thorin when he is separated from them In Mirkwood.

“befall, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 7 May 2015.

Bebother

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Our Mr. Baggins, dignified even in his indignance, uses one of the most magnificent words of the book right up front in Chapter 1.

  • 01.059 Confusticate and bebother these dwarves!’

“Bother” we all understand as “annoy” in our present use of English.  It also has an obscure meaning.

To bewilder with noise; to confuse, muddle; to put into a fluster or flutter.

The dwarves have definitely annoyed Bilbo, in exactly this obscure specific way, with which I am certain Tolkien was familiar.  To this word he has added be-.  “May the dwarves become bothered.  May bothering surround them.”  “Bebother” as a verb has no entry in the OED, but the adjective “bebothered” is attested there for the mid-1800s.  Tolkien invented this word – back-forming it from “bebothered” – deducing a word that must have existed but for which no evidence is found.  Creative deduction like this of what are often called “asterisk words” is the chief tool of the philologist

As a Chapter 1 word, “bebother” goes far to setting tone and illustrating some of Bilbo’s character.  I imagine him stamping his hairy foot, eyes squinted and head shaking.  At about four feet tall and moving toward being “on his dignity”, he seems to be in a dudgeon which cannot really be … high.  I am listing “bebother” as a funny word both for the image and for sound of it, a little startle of humour when we  hear something as unexpected as Wednesday afternoon parties.

“bother, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 7 May 2015.

Zig-zag

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“Zig-zag” is first attested in English as a garden path layout in 1712.  Its earliest appearance is in German (zickzack), indicating a proper path toward a siege so that the defenders don’t have a clear shot at the besiegers.  In The Hobbit, the term describes the path into well-hidden and well-fortified Rivendell.

  • 03.012 in the dusk down the steep zig-zag path

OED reports that it can be two words, one word, or hyphenated.

“zigzag, n., adj., and adv.”. OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 9 May 2015.

Yammer

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It turns out that goblins and wolves yammer, as do dwarves in their presence.  Yammer, yelling or shouting, has an earlier obsolete meaning in the Oxford English Dictionary – specifically to make that noise in mourning and lamentation.  Yammering in The Hobbit occurs only in the context of goblins and wolves.

  • 04.021 Batter and beat! Yammer and bleat!
  • 04.022 and more than one of the dwarves were already yammering
  • 04.036 The yells and yammering,
  • 06.065 and yammering
  • 06.082 The wolves yammered

“yammer, v.”.  OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 9 May 2015.

Wade

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Wade, a word whose root is found in both old Germanic languages and in Latin, used to be a strong verb in Middle English, “wade, wode, wad”.  “Swim” is among The Ten Thousand, but I note here that there’s no robust distribution difference between “wade” and “swim” in the text – there’s only one occurrence of “swim” after Chapter 9, just as there is none of “wade” after that point.

  • 05.011 Still he did not dare to wade out into the darkness.
  • 07.117 and shallow enough for me to wade
  • 08.012 and we daren’t try to wade or swim.’
  • 09.062 and waded ashore,

“wade, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 9 May 2015.

Vagabond

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“Vagabond” comes from French and Latin vagus “wander”, and is related thus to “vague”.  “Wandering vagabond” is not quite redundant, however.  “Vagabond” has an unsavory connotation of lack of occupation or means, and is how the raft-elves describe the dwarves to the Master of Lake-town.

  • 10.031 wandering vagabond dwarves

“vagabond, adj. and n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 9 May 2015.

Ugh

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This imitative interjection sounds just like what it means.  It doesn’t show up after Chapter 8.

  • 05.010 Ugh! (of the icy cold water in Gollum’s lake)
  • 05.051 Ugh!’ he said, (of a cold, clammy fish)
  • 07.035 Ugh! here they are!’ (Beorn of Gandalf and Bilbo)
  • 08.110 Ugh! (spiders responding to being cut by Sting)

“ugh, int. and n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 9 May 2015.

Tablet

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Such an everyday thing as a tablet to write on can be found only in Chapter 1, our gateway from our world into the fantastical one of The Hobbit.

  • 01.024 unless he put them down on his Engagement Tablet:

“tablet, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 9 May 2015.

Sack

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In The Hobbit, sacks are either empty or full of dwarves.  They do not appear after chapter 8 except as a particle in Sackville-Baggins.

  • 02.072 and “a sack,
  • 02.072 a sack was over his head,
  • 02.075 pop! went a nasty smelly sack over his head,
  • 02.080 and popped a sack right over Thorin’s head
  • 02.075 With sacks
  • 02.077 sticking out of sacks to tell him
  • 02.078 in the bushes with sacks,” said he.
  • 02.080 in sacks,
  • 02.092 until at last they decided to sit on the sacks
  • 02.108 to untie the sacks
  • 06.046 and my stomach is wagging like an empty sack.’
  • 08.050 and hoist their empty sacks

Racket

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Both dwarves and river-elves cause rackets of the loud noise variety in The Hobbit.  OED gives it as possibily imitative

  • 02.042 at what he called “all this dwarvish racket,”
  • 09.029 Drat this dwarvish racket!’
  • 09.064 and there was a merry racket down by the river.

“racket, n.2.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 8 June 2015.