S. pend n. and adj. “slope, steep incline, hill side; sloping (down), steeply inclined” (Category: Slope, Cliff)
A noun for “slope” (RC/525) or a “steep incline, hill side” (PE17/24), also used as an adjective for “steeply inclined, sloping down” (PE17/24) or “steeply sloping” (PE17/173). In keeping with the general conventions of this lexicon, I represent it as pend since Tolkien said -nd frequently survived “at the end of fully accented monosyllables” (LotR/1115), but in his notes Tolkien marked pend as Old Sindarin and gave penn as the modern form (PE17/24, 173).
Conceptual Development: The earliest appearance of this word was in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s as ᴱN. benn (†bend) with glosses like “inclined, sloping” (PE13/138) or “slanting, sloping, up or down hill” (PE13/160). In this period it as derived from primitive ᴱ✶bendā and was an adjective only; the noun form was ᴱN. binn.
In The Etymologies of the 1930s it first appeared as N. denn (†dend) “sloping” as a derivative of ᴹ√DEN “hillside, slope”, but the meaning of this root was change to ᴹ√DEN “hole; gap, passage” (Ety/DEN). Tolkien introduced a new root ᴹ√PEN(ED) with the derivative N. penn (†pend) “declivity” (Ety/PEN). In later writings, though, its root form was √PED instead of ᴹ√PEN, as √PEN was given the new sense “lack, be without” (PE17/173; WJ/375).
References ✧ PE17/24, 173; RC/525
Glosses
Variations
Related
Changes
Inflections
| Pinnath | class-plural | “Slopes” | ✧ PE17/24 |
| pennath | class-plural | ✧ PE17/24 | |
| pind | plural | ✧ PE17/24 | |
| pinn | plural | ✧ PE17/24; RC/525 |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ✶pendā > pend > penn | [pendā] > [penda] > [pend] > [penn] | ✧ PE17/173 |
N. penn¹ n. “declivity” (Category: Slope, Cliff)
References ✧ Ety/DEN, PEN
Glosses
Variations
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ᴹ√DEN > dend > denn | [ndenda] > [denda] > [dend] > [denn] | ✧ Ety/DEN |
| ᴹ√PÉNED > pend > penn | [pende] > [pend] > [penn] | ✧ Ety/PEN |
ᴱN. benn adj. “sloping, inclined, slanting, up or down hill” (Category: Slope, Cliff)
References ✧ MC/217; PE13/138, 160
Glosses
Variations
Inflections
| binn | plural | ✧ PE13/138; PE13/160 |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations