Uncommon words

Within J.R.R. Tolkien's works, there are many uncommon, archaic, obsolete and dialectal words (especially from the dialects of the United Kingdom) which might cause confusion to readers and may make a passage of text appear unwieldy.

Ballsack

In

Never gonna give you up

Never gonna let you down

Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry

G

• gaffer - a word meaning both "old man" and "foreman"* its use as the nickname of Hamfast Gamgee is probably mean to combine both meanings.
• gainsay - contradict
• gallop - boil and bubble
• game - crippled
• gammer - old woman
• garth - an enclosed garden or yard
• ghyll - deep ravine
• gibbet - A gallows built to display the body of an executed criminal
• gimlet - A sharp boring tool, similar in general design to a corkscrew; see like gimlets see sharply
• girdle - belt or cord used especially to confine clothing
• girdle₂ - something which surrounds or encircles; girdle of Arda the central regions of Arda, equidistant from the far north and south
• girt - bound or attached with a belt
• glede - burning coal or cinder
• gloaming - the twilight of evening
• glower - scowl, frown
• goggle - stare with round eyes
• gorcrow - carrion crow
• graven - engraved, carved
• greened - made green from the mosses and lichens on a tree's trunk
• grot - old form of "grotto"; an ornamental or picturesque cavern
• guileful - treacherous, deceitful
• gunwale - the top edge of a boat's side, pronounced (and sometimes spelt) 'gunnel'

H

• habergeon - a mail-coat without sleeves
• hale - robust, strong of body
• hame - hide, pelt
• hang - to leave food, especially game, in the open until it becomes "high" or tender
• harbour - succor, assistance
• hardly - with great difficulty
• hardly₂ - only just
• harry - ravage
• haste - hurry, rush
• hauberk - mail-coat
• headstall - a covering for a horse's head, used as an alternative to bridle and bit
• hearken - listen, pay attention
• heed - thought, consideration
• heedless - careless of danger
• hence - from here
• hew - chop, slice
• hither - to here, to this place; hither and thither in various directions
• hither₂ - nearer, closer
• hoar - grey- or white-haired
• hobble - limp, walk with difficulty
• hock - the middle joint of a horse's or pony's leg
• houseleek - a fleshy plant that grows on the walls and roofs of houses
• hue - form or shape
• hummock - a small hill or knoll (in The Lord of the Rings, "hummock" is used metaphorically to describe the shape made by the palantír beneath Gandalf's cloak)
• hundredweight - the pun in Tolkien's description of Bilbo's 112th birthday as a "Hundredweight Feast" is based on the fact that in Britain a hundredweight is 112 pounds.
• hunter's moon - the full moon of mid- to late October
• hythe - a small harbour or haven, especially on a river

I

• ill - evil, wrong
• inaureoled surrounded with a halo, (the word is only recorded in the O.E.D. in a poem by Francis Thompson, 1897).

J

• jacinth - blue
• jetsam - items thrown overboard from a ship, and later washed ashore

K

• keen - sharp
• kerb - a raised edge to a road or path
• kindle - set fire to, begin to burn

L

• lampads - The word is only recorded in the O.E.D. (first used by Coleridge) of the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne of God in the Book of Revelation, chapter 4 verse 5.
• lave - wash, bathe
• lay - a poem that is meant to be sung
• league - a measure of distance, about three miles
• leaguer - an encampment or encampments, especially for defensive purposes
• leave - permission
• lee - shelter, especially from wind and weather
• leech - healer
• leechcraft - the practice of magical medicine. The name is based on the Celtic word for stone. The animal leech (Latin: sanguisuga, literally: blood sucker) is named for the healer (leech), rather than the other way around.
• legendarium - term coined by Tolkien to mean the entirety of his works concerning his imagined world of Eä
• lets upon gives on to, opens on to
• lief gladly, willingly
• liever more gladly, more willingly, rather
• lissom - lithe, supple
• loath - reluctant
• lob - spider (seen, for example, in the name Shelob)
• loth - reluctant [a variation on loath above]
• louver - a domed structure built on a roof with side-openings to allow smoke to escape
• lustihead vigour

M

• malefactor - one who commits an evil act
• mantle - cloak, cover
• mar - spoil or damage beyond repair
• march - share borders
• marchwarden - border guard
• mark - notice, detect
• marshal - place in proper order
• mattock - a primitive weapon, originally a farming tool, perhaps best described as a double-headed battle-hoe
• maw - jaws and throat, especially of a ferocious animal
• mayhap - perhaps
• mead - an alcoholic drink made from honey
• mead₂ - meadow
• meed - requital
• mere - lake or pond
• mew - a type of gull
• midge - tiny airborne biting insect; not unlike a mosquito, but much smaller
• minished reduced, diminished
• mischance - accident
• misgive - fill with doubt or suspicion
• moonshine - fantastic ideas
• muster - collect, assemble

N

• nethermost - lowest, deepest
• nicety - precision, exactness; weigh to a nicety measure exactly
• nigh - near; well nigh, wellnigh almost, very nearly
• nightshade - probably simply "darkness" (the literal use of this word appears to be unique to Tolkien - in * historical English, it is only used figuratively as the name of a poisonous plant)
• noisome - foul-smelling, poisonous
• nook - corner, recess

O

• obeisance - bowing or kneeling in submission
• oft - often
• or ... or - either ... or
• or yet - apparently means "already",
• ostler - stable-keeper
• ousel blackbird, 43 (now spelled ouzel, in Ring-ouzel and other bird-names).
• oust - take possession of another's lands, property, title, etc.
• outworn - exhausted
• overbear - defeat by weight of numbers

P

• pallid - pale
• panoply - full suit of armour
• parapet - defensive wall built to protect troops
• parley - discuss terms of peace or cease-fire
• passward - something granting passage of a guard
• pate - head, mind
• pent - restricted, confined
• penthouse - the area beneath a sloping roof, especially as a later extension to an existing building
• perforce - having no choice, being forced
• pinion - a bird's wing, and especially the tip
• plash - splash
• pleasance - "A pleasure-ground, usually attached to a mansion; sometimes a secluded part of a garden, but more often a separate enclosure laid out with shady walks, trees and shrubs..." (O.E.D.)
• pled old past tense of plead, 186
• plenilune - the time of full moon (see Letters p. 310).
• portage - transporting a boat overland
• portent - omen, sign
• postern - a back- or side-entrance
• pricks - (spurs his horse), rides fast. Oromë pricks over the plain echoes the first line of The Faerie Queene, A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine.
• profound - deep
• prosy - dull, contented with the commonplace
• provender - food
• puissant - powerful
• purloin - steal

Q

• quaff - drink deeply
• quail - give way to, be intimidated by

R

• raiment - clothing
• rearguard - that part of an army set to cover its rear ranks, especially in retreat
• recked - troubled, cared
• rede - counsel, advice; plan; redes counsels
• redound - contribute to, advance
• redress - setting right
• reft - past tense of the old word reave, to take by force
• rent - past tense of rend, to tear or split
• repair - make one's way, go
• respite - relief, calm interval
• revelry - merrymaking
• rick - a stack, especially of hay
• rill - a small stream
• rondured - (in golden-rondured). Rondure "circle, rounded form"; rondured is not recorded.
• rude - simple, primitive
• rue - regret, repent of
• rumour - sound
• ruth - matter of sorrow, calamity; distress, grief; remorse

S

• sable - heraldic term for black
• sallow - having yellow or pale brown skin
• saps - deep diggings
• sate - old past tense of sit
• save - except
• seamews - seagulls
• selenites - inhabitants of the Moon
• semblance - appearance
• shade - ghost or phantasm
• shallop - This word had precise applications to particular kinds of boat, but here apparently means "open boat propelled by oars and sail".
• shank - leg; especially that part between the knee and ankle
• share - share=ploughshare, but used here of the blade of a scythe.
• sheaf - bundle or cluster of stalks
• shoal - a particularly shallow part of a river- or sea-bed
• shore - slice, tear (an old past tense of "shear")
• shun - refuse
• sister-son - nephew
• sledge-blows blows as of a sledge, a large heavy hammer
• slot - track of an animal
• slowcoach - someone who moves slowly, or is often late
• sluggard - slow or lazy person
• smite - strike, attack (the past tense is smote)
• snuff - sniff deeply
• sojourn - temporary stay
• sooth - true, truthful
• sortie - an attack launched by a besieged force
• spinney - group of trees, or small wood
• sprent - past participle of the lost verb sprenge "sprinkle, scatter"
• sprite(s) - spirit(s)
• stead - place, position
• stem - block, hold back
• stock - the trunk or stump of a tree; stock and stone inanimate things
• stoop - in falconry, to swoop on prey
• straightway - immediately, directly
• strait - narrowly confining
• straitly - narrowly, tightly
• strand - shore, shoreline, especially a beach
• stricken - struck, beaten; (as an adjective) damaged, broken
• suaded - persuaded
• succour - give aid
• sunder - divide, separate
• surname - an additional name indicating some quality or ability (as distinct from modern usage, surname in this context has no connection with family)
• sward - region of short grass, lawn
• swart - dark-skinned
• swarthy - dark-skinned
• swath - a strip of grass that has been flattened or mown
• swoon - faint

T

• tarn - mountain lake
• tarry - pause, wait
• thanksgiving- festival of giving thanks, as in a prayer
• thenceforward - from that time on
• thither - to or in that place
• thraldom - slavery
• thrall - slave
• thrawn - twisted, misshapen
• thrawn₂ - obstinate, stubborn
• throe - violent agony
• throve - old past tense of 'thrive'
• thwart - foil, stop
• tidings - news
• tipsy - slightly drunk
• tithe - tenth part
• toils - trap, snare
• toothsome - pleasantly appetising
• tors - rocky hill-tops
• toss-pot - drunkard
• tracery - complex interlinked ornamentation
• traffic - trade
• trammels - nets, traps
• traverse - travel through or across
• trillups, trillaping - Unknown
• trove - found treasure
• truncheon - a wooden shaft used as a weapon, or part of a weapon
• tryst - a prearranged meeting; break tryst fail to appear at the agreed upon time and place
• tumult - noisy disturbance
• tunic - a loose, short-sleeved garment
• tuppence - two pence, a very small amount of money; not care tuppence have no interest
• turnkey - jailer
• tussock - clump of grass
• twine - twist strands together into a rope

U

• umbel - long flower, as in hemlock or parsley
• unblazoned - an heraldic term, plain, undecorated
• umbraged - (in wide-umbraged) Umbraged "shaded, shadowed", but here in the sense "shadowing", "casting a shade".
• ungentle - rough, coarse
• unquiet - anxious, concerned
• unsated - unsatisfied
• unsullied - pure, uncorrupted
• upbraid - criticise
• upheave - push or force upwards

V

• vale - the valley of a river
• varmint - pest, bothersome person or animal
• vassal - servant, bondsman
• vie - struggle with, be rival to
• vigil - watchfulness; hold vigil make devotion
• viol - an old instrument, usually with six strings, similar to a violin but held in a vertical position like a 'cello

W

• waif - homeless person
• wain - wagon; The Wain the constellation of the Plough or Big Dipper
• wan - pale
• wards - the "teeth" of a key
• ware - old form of aware
• waver - shimmer, flicker
• waver₂ - show indecision
• wax - grow stronger; increase
• waylay - intercept, prevent from going forward
• wayward - uncontrollable, unpredictable
• web(s) - woven fabric
• wellnigh - almost, very nearly
• weregild - a payment in compensation for a death (literally "man-money")
• wheedle - coax, persuade
• whelm - engulf, cover
• whence - from where
• whereat - for which reason
• wherefore - for what (or which) reason
• whet - sharpen
• whickering - The verb whicker meant to laugh or titter, or of a horse to whinny, but the O.E.D. cites a line from Masefield the wall-top grasses whickered in the breeze, and the 1920 Supplement to the Dictionary gives a meaning "to make a hurtling sound", with a single citation where the word is used of a thunderbolt "whickering through the sky". In the 1962 version of The Man in the Moon the word flickering occurs in this verse.
• whitethorn - hawthorn
• whither - to which place
• wildered - perplexed, bewildered
• wile - trick, deceit
• wizened - of shriveled appearance
• wold - an upland region of moorland
• wont - customarily, regularly; wont to err thus regularly make mistakes of this kind
• worrit - worry
• worst - defeat
• wrack - devastation, downfall, ruin, (compare with rack and ruin)
• wrack₂ - clouds being driven by a strong wind?
• wraith - ghost, apparition
• wreathe - engulf, surround (especially of vapour or fire)
• wrest - take by force
• writhen - writhing, twisting
• wroth - angry

Y

• yammer - wail, weep, cry
• yoke - wooden harness for oxen; under the yoke under complete control
• yonder - over there
• yore - long ago

Z

• zenith - highest point

External Links

• Old and Rare Words at the Encyclopedia of Arda, from where many of the words on this list have originated.
• A Tolkien English Glossary (web edition)