S. #pêl n. “*fenced field” (Category: Field for Cultivation)
A noun appearing as an element is several later names such as Pelargir “Garth of Royal Ships” (RC/535) and Pelennor “Fenced Land” (PE17/65). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, N. pêl was glossed “fenced field, [Old English] tūn” under the root ᴹ√PEL(ES) (Ety/PEL(ES); EtyAC/PEL(ES)). The Old English word “tūn” means “enclosure” and was the ancestor of modern English “town”. It seems that as a suffix, -bel (mutated pel) could likewise refer to a settlement analogous to English “-ton, -ham”, such as in Calembel “Greenham” (RC/537).
In The Etymologies as published in The Lost Road the form was pel (LR/380), but Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynne indicated the actual form was pêl in their Addenda and Corrigenda to the Etymologies (VT46/8), in keeping with the principle that short vowels generally lengthened in monosyllables. This word has an unusual plural peli, where the final i was retained because it was originally non-final, preserved before an s > h that was ultimately lost: ancient plural pelesi > pelih(i) > modern plural peli.
Conceptual Development: Similarly derived words in Tolkien’s early iterations of the language include G. pless “fence, hedge” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s derived from the early root ᴱ√PELE¹ “fence in” (GL/64; QL/73) and ᴱN. helai “fence” in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s derived from primitive ᴱ✶pelesa (PE13/147).
Reference ✧ PE17/95 ✧ #pel
Element In
Derivations
N. pêl n. “fenced field” (Category: Field for Cultivation)
References ✧ Ety/PEL(ES); EtyAC/PEL(ES)
Glosses
Variations
Changes
Inflections
| peli | plural | ✧ Ety/PEL(ES) |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ON. pele > pêl | [pele] > [pel] > [pēl] | ✧ Ety/PEL(ES) |
| ON. pelehi > peli | [pelehi] > [pelihi] > [pelih] > [peli] | ✧ Ety/PEL(ES) |