S. annûn n. “sunset, west; (lit.) going down” (Category: Dusk)
The Sindarin word for “sunset”, more literally “going down”, also used to mean “West” (LotR/1116, 1123; PE17/64, 88, 121). It was based on the root √NDU “sink, go down” (PE17/64), derived from primitive ✶ṇdūnē like its Quenya counterpart Q. andúnë (Ety/NDŪ). The overlong vowel in the last syllable of annûn is unusual, and was due to the influence of related dûn “west” (LotR/1116 note #1). I believe annûn is most generally used for “sunset”, and when used for “West” it means “the West” as a location, as opposed to a direction which is dûn.
Conceptual Development: N. annûn first appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s, already with the derivation given above but only glossed “west” (Ety/NDU).
There was a similar word {nún >>} ᴱN. nuin in Early Noldorin Wordlists and the Early Noldorin Dictionary of the 1920s, a noun form of the verb ᴱN. nuv- “to sink, set” (PE13/151, 161, 164). Tolkien first gave it as nún “sinking, going down” as a derivative of primitive ᴱ✶numne (PE13/151), but later gave it as nuin “sinking down, going down” from primitive ᴱ✶nubhin (PE13/164). In the second instance he specified it was both “n[oun] & inf[initive]”. In the first instance Tolkien said that “Nún is used = West”.
Another likely precursor was G. nûmin “the west, sinking” from the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/61) which in turn was probably based on the early root ᴱ√NUHU “bow, bend down; stoop, sink” as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (QL/68; LT1A/Númë).
References ✧ LB/354; Let/448; LotR/674, 953, 1116, 1123; PE17/18, 64, 88, 102, 121; RC/473; SA/andúnë
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| √NDŪ > Annûn | [ṇdūnē] > [andūnē] > [andūne] > [andūn] > [annūn] | ✧ PE17/64 |
N. annûn n. “west” (Category: Dusk)
References ✧ Ety/NDŪ, RŌ
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| ᴹ✶ṇdūnē > annûn | [ṇdūnē] > [andūnē] > [andūne] > [andūn] > [annūn] | ✧ Ety/NDŪ |
ᴱN. nuin² n. “sinking, going down; west” (Category: to Sink)
References ✧ PE13/151, 161, 164
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| #nuv- | “to sink, set” | stem | ✧ PE13/161 (†numh-) |
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