S. cam n. “(cupped) hand, holding hand; handful” (Category: Hand)
A common Sindarin word for “hand”, most notably an element in the names Camlost “Empty-handed” and Erchamion “One-handed”. In drafts of Tolkien’s 1968 notes on Eldarin Hands, Fingers and Numerals, he glossed this word as “handful, holding hand” (VT47/22 note #19). In the final version of these notes, Tolkien said that its Quenya equivalent camba “referred to the whole hand, but as flexed, with fingers more or less closed, cupped, in the attitude of receiving or holding” (VT47/7), and in the Silmarillion Appendix Christopher Tolkien indicated the same was true of the Sindarin word (SA/cam).
However, based on the 1950s phrase sí il chem en i Naugrim en ir Ellath thor den ammen “*now all (?hands) of the Dwarves and Elves will be (?against) to us” (VT50/5), I think the Sindarin word is more general in meaning, able to refer to a hand in any context, but most specifically an open hand or one holding an object loosely, as opposed to paur for a tightly closed hand. Based on the gloss “handful”, it seems it could also be used as a unit of measure for the contents of a hand (potential or actual): cam miriain “a hand[ful] of coins”.
Conceptual Development: A possible precursor to this word was G. gob “hollow of hand” from the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s based on the early root ᴱ√kop- “keep, guard” (GL/40; QL/47). In The Etymologies of the 1930s the word was N. cam “hand” derived from the root ᴹ√KAB “hollow” (Ety/KAB), a form Tolkien retained thereafter. In later notes he usually derived this word from √KAB (VT47/7, 20), though in one place he considered deriving it from √KAM instead (VT47/20); this root change seems to have been a transient idea.
References ✧ SA/cam; VT47/22; VT50/22
Glosses
Variations
Related
Changes
Inflections
| chem | liquid-mutation plural; c-mutation | “?hands” | ✧ VT50/22 |
| cem | plural | “?hands” | ✧ VT50/22 |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ✶kambā > cam | [kambā] > [kamba] > [kamb] > [kamm] > [kamm] > [kam] | ✧ SA/cam |
N. cam n. “hand” (Category: Hand)
References ✧ Ety/KAB, LAD, MAƷ; EtyAC/KAB; PE21/60
Glosses
Variations
Inflections
| kambaio | old-genitive plural | ✧ PE21/60 |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ᴹ√KAB > camb > cam | [kamba] > [kamb] > [kamb] > [kamm] > [kam] | ✧ Ety/KAB |
| ON. kamba > camm | [kamba] > [kamb] > [kamb] > [kamm] | ✧ Ety/MAƷ |