S. taur n. “forest, wood” (Category: Woods, Forest)
The most common Sindarin word for “forest”, derived from √TAW “wood” (PE17/115) or its extended form ᴹ√TAWAR (Ety/TÁWAR). In one place Tolkien said it was “only used of huge forests” due to the influence of N. taur “mighty” (Ety/TÁWAR), but in practice this was not the case.
Conceptual Development: The word G. taur appeared all the way back in Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s with the gloss “a dense wood or forest” (GL/69), almost certainly a derivative of the early root ᴱ√TAVA “beam” as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (LT1A/Tavari). ᴱN. taur “forest” appeared in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s (PE13/153), and N. taur¹ “great wood, forest” appeared in The Etymologies as a derivative of the root ᴹ√TAWAR which is also where Tolkien said it was “only used of huge forests” as noted above (Ety/TÁWAR). This word appeared frequently in Sindarin names in Tolkien’s later writings.
References ✧ LotR/469, 1134; PE17/82, 115; PE21/79; RC/384; S/123; SA/taur; WJ/187; WJI/Taur-i-Melegyrn, Taur-na-Chardhîn
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| ✶tau-rē > taur | [taurē] > [taure] > [taur] | ✧ PE17/115 |
N. taur¹ n. “forest, great wood” (Category: Woods, Forest)
References ✧ Ety/ERÉK, PHUY, SPAR, TÁWAR
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| ᴹ✶tau̯rē > taur | [taurē] > [taure] > [tǭre] > [toure] > [taure] > [taur] | ✧ Ety/TÁWAR |
ᴱN. taur n. “forest” (Category: Woods, Forest)
References ✧ PE13/153; SM/26
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G. taur¹ n. “dense wood or forest” (Category: Woods, Forest)
References ✧ GL/19, 69; LT1A/Tavari; LT2A/Golosbrindi
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