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S. sarn n. and adj. “(small) stone, pebble; stony (place)” (Category: Rock, Stone)

S. sarn, n. and adj. “(small) stone, pebble; stony (place); ⚠️[N.] stone as a material” (Category: Rock, Stone)
G. cloch “stone (small), stone of fruit”

A Sindarin noun for a small individual stone or pebble (RC/327; VT42/11) in contrast to S. gond for large blocks of stone or rock (Ety/GOND) or stone as a material (PE17/28). However, sarn also functioned as an adjective “stony”, and when used unqualified could also refer to a “stony place” (RC/163). It was a derivative of the root ᴹ√SAR (Ety/SAR).

Conceptual Development: This word dates all the way back to the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s where Tolkien had G. sarn “a stone” (GL/67), and it was also an element in the negative word ᴱN. orsarn “stoneless” in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s (PE13/156). It appeared as N. sarn, a derivative of ᴹ√SAR, in The Etymologies of the 1930s, but in this document it was glossed “stone as a material”, and also functioned as an adjective, apparently a blending of *sarnē and ᴹ✶sarnā (Ety/SAR), in contrast to N. gonn which in this document was only “a great stone or rock” (Ety/GOND). In later writings sarn could still function as an adjective “stony” (RC/163) but as a noun generally referred to an individual (small) stone, as in the name S. Edhelharn “Elfstone” (SD/128).

References ✧ RC/163, 327, 775; SA/sarn; UTI/Serni; VT42/11

Glosses

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Changes

Element In

Cognates


N. sarn n. and adj. “stone as a material” (Category: Rock, Stone)

See S. sarn for discussion.

References ✧ Ety/SAR; TI/345; WR/98, 132

Glosses

Variations

Inflections

Sairn plural   ✧ WR/132
Sern plural “stones” ✧ WR/98
Sern plural   ✧ WR/132
harn soft-mutation; s-mutation “stone” ✧ TI/345

Element In

Cognates

Derivations

Phonetic Developments

ᴹ√SAR > sarn [sarna] > [sarn] ✧ Ety/SAR

ᴱN. #sarn n. “stone” (Category: Rock, Stone)

See S. sarn for discussion.

Reference ✧ PE13/156 ✧ “stone”

Element In


G. sarn n. “a stone” (Category: Rock, Stone)

See S. sarn for discussion.

References ✧ GL/67; LT2A/Sarnathrod

Glosses

Element In