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S. fen(n) n. “door” (Category: Door, Gate)

S. fen(n), n. “door; ⚠️[N.] threshold” (Category: Door, Gate)
ᴱN. ann “door”
G. anna “door, opening”

A word for “door” in the name Fen Hollen “Closed Door” (LotR/826; RC/550). In notes from December 1959 (D59), Tolkien based it on the root √PHEN and gave its Quenya equivalent as fenna, indicating a primitive form of *phennā (PE17/181). If so, its ordinary form should be fenn, and this was indeed the form in Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s (WR/341). Perhaps fen is a reduced pseudo-prefixal form.

Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien had N. fenn “threshold” derived from ON. phenda under the root ᴹ√PHEN (Ety/PHEN).

Neo-Sindarin: I don’t think the senses “door” and “threshold” are likely to coexist, so for purposes of Neo-Sindarin I would limit fenn to “door” and would use ᴺS. fend < *phenda for “threshold”, following the principle that nd remained “at the end of fully accented monosyllables” in Sindarin (LotR/1115).

References ✧ PE17/45, 98, 181; RC/550

Glosses

Variations

Element In

Cognates

Derivations

Phonetic Developments

PHEN > fen [pʰenna] > [ɸenna] > [fenna] > [fenn] ✧ PE17/181

N. fenn n. “threshold, door” (Category: Door, Gate)

See S. fen(n) for discussion.

References ✧ Ety/PHEN; WR/341

Glosses

Element In

Cognates

Derivations

Phonetic Developments

ON. phenda > fend > fenn [ɸenda] > [fenda] > [fend] > [fenn] ✧ Ety/PHEN