#Word nerd

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

Someone asked me to expand a little on a topic that was buried down in a big chain of reblogs, so I'm doing that here--it's about the use of the archaic "thee", "thou", "thy", etc. in LOTR and what it tells you about characters’ feelings for one another. (I am NOT an expert on this, so it's just what I've picked up over time!)

Like many (most?) modern English speakers, I grew up thinking of those old forms of 2nd person address as being extra formal. I think that's because my main exposure to them was in the Bible ("thou shall not...") and why wouldn't god, speaking as the ultimate authority, be using the most formal, official voice? But it turns out that for a huge chunk of the history of the English language, "thee," "thou," and "thy" were actually the informal/casual alternatives to the formal "you", “your”, “yours”. Like tú v. usted in Spanish!

With that in mind, Tolkien was very intentional about when he peppered in a "thee" or a "thou" in his dialogue. It only happens a handful of times. Most of those are when a jerk is trying to make clear that someone else is beneath them by treating them informally. Denethor "thou"s Gandalf when he’s pissed at him. The Witch King calls Éowyn "thee" to cut her down verbally before he cuts her down physically. And the Mouth of Sauron calls Aragorn and Gandalf "thou" as a way to show them that he has the upper hand. (Big oops by all 3 of these guys!)

The other times are the opposite--it's when someone starts to use the informal/casual form as a way to show their feeling of affection for someone else. Galadriel goes with the formal "you" all through the company's days in Lórien, but by the time they leave she has really taken them to heart. So when she sends them a message via Gandalf early in the Two Towers, she uses "thee" and "thou" in her words to Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli because now they're valued friends and allies. And--this is the big one, folks, that was already alluded to in my previous post--Éowyn starts aggressively "thou"ing Aragorn when she is begging him to take her along as he prepares to ride out of Dunharrow. She is very intentionally trying to communicate her feelings to him in her choice of pronoun--an "I wouldn't be calling you "thee" if I didn't love you" kind of thing. And he is just as intentionally using "you" in every single one of his responses in order to gently establish a boundary with her without having to state outright that he doesn't reciprocate her feelings. It's not until much later when her engagement to Faramir is announced that Aragorn finally busts out "I have wished thee joy ever since I first saw thee". Because now it is safe to acknowledge a relationship of closeness and familiarity with her without the risk that it will be misinterpreted. He absolutely wants to have that close, familiar relationship, but he saved it for when he knew she could accept it on his terms without getting hurt.

So, you know, like all things language-based...Tolkien made very purposeful decisions in his word choices down to a bonkers level of detail. I didn’t know about this pronoun thing until I was a whole ass adult, but that’s the joy of dealing with Tolkien. I still discover new things like this almost every time I re-read.

[mouthtapedguy]

I once said "colonel" like "co-lo-nel" and the silence was deafening

[flavoracle]

Hey, so we all agree that in mythology, a character that is the offspring of a deity and a mortal is called a “demigod,” right?

I mean, that’s like the most common kind of demigod. One immortal parent and one mortal parent.

So from a strictly mythological perspective, can we agree that Jesus Christ should be categorized as a demigod? I mean I know that the stories about him usually stress the whole “son of god” thing, but he is also the son of Mary, who was mortal.

[loxosceleslolo]

i don't remember if i posted this last year and i have yet to record audio for this but here's what Malenia and Margit's boss monologues would look like if their dialogue was written in Middle English (disclaimer: i am very rusty but this should be mostly correct)

Malenia, Blade of Miquella:

Ich dremed for so longe.

Me flæsh was dal gold ant me blod, rotenen.

Careyne after careyne lefte in me wake

As Ich awayted his returne.

Hede me wordes:

Ich am Malenia, Blade de Miquella.

Ant ichave næfre knowen defete.

Margit the Fell Omen:

Fowel Ternishen.

Sechen after the Elden Ringe.

Won mote quenchen thy flaume.

Let hit be Margit the Felle.

[jkl-fff]

For a recent Silly Game Time,

I asked respondants to propse a second name for spring (the season) in English. Much like autumn is also interchangably called fall.

Below are some of the options I was most impressed by.

[alliterative-endlessknot]

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is EAT/FRET #wotd #eat #fret

[bluepandaears]

I apologise for obsessing over the way Charles says "Lexicographic." The letter "L" has never been more appealing in my life.

[applysome]

Probably extremely late to the party here but along the same lines of twin flames / soul mates etc in any sense:

The Little Flames / Arctic Monkeys - Hot / Cold

Rascal / Monkey - both terms for a mischievous or cheeky person

Miles / Alexander - Soldier / Warrior, (or more accurately “Defender of People”)

What’s a few more coincidences in the grand scheme of things?

For anyone curious, Kane is also derived from a word meaning son of warrior, so Miles’s name is literally “soldier, son of warrior”.

And Turner is someone who would make small objects on a lathe or “turn the lathe”.

Thanks for coming to my etymological Ted Talk.

[roseverdict]

grouping ESL into one Thing atm but if enough people specify learning US english as a second language vs UK english as a second language i might make a new poll to account for it

[ominous-ellipses]

okay so i try desperately to not be a pretentious asshole about spelling and grammar. i make my own share of mistakes, often on purpose. i'll make one in this post, maybe even. BUT i'm currently mad at this person, specifically for their horrible communication skills that may have just permanently damaged something, so this was eating at me

armwa... they meant armoire. this is haunting me. armwa

i sent this image to my dear friend @blackandwhitereruns, and we got talking about what an armoire is, and then i went wait do you think this has something to do with the word armory AND IT DOES!

they both come from the latin root "arma," which means "weapons!"

Source Links:

https://www.etymonline.com/word/armoire

https://www.etymonline.com/word/armory

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/armoire

[the-bisexual-bitch]

favorite word?

I've got a whole ass list of them!

I'll give you top 3, because lord knows I can't choose one 😅

1. Quixotic

exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical

2. Specious

superficially plausible, but actually wrong

3. Zeugma

a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g., John and his license expired last week )

And I have many, many more

[writernotwaiting]

Learned a new word today:

Somniloquy—talking in one’s sleep

How cool is that? Now all I can do is think of Hamlet: “To sleep. To dream. For in that sleep what dreams may come?”

[curiouspupsicle]

Tattoo?

Just used the word "tattoo" in my fic before wondering if anyone knows its meaning behind marking the skin with needles and ink. Here's a "word nerd" moment. The origin of the word (not the one about marking skin) comes from a Dutch word for "last call" - "taptoe." In the military, it came to mean the music ending the day. Y'know, like taps? Anyway, a tattoo is rhythmic beating of drums to end the day. The video is of my favorite drum corp who perform at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Why does a pacifist love martial music so much? 🤷🏼‍♀️

Maybe it's because I believe war should be replaced with a battle of the bands? Make music, not war!

[jkl-fff]

Silly Game Time:

Invent a new word, with a full dictionary definition and usage, and then use it in actual conversation.

What is your word, and did anyone notice?

I'll answer the second question first: YUP! Because I either outright tell them (my enthusiasm for language and linguistics is so great that I can't contain it), or because I have a huge grin on my face whenever I do something I think is clever (unless I have a reason to hide it, that is, like for devious and sneaky reasons).

As for the first question, I've made a post for every time I came up with a new word (or neologism, as is the recognized term for a new word). AND HERE THEY ARE!

Merdage

Fangstastic

Nomage

Regrestion

Sasscastic

Gwiggle

Mistraighten

Drameh

Smute

Douché

Horrousal

Pretenderness

Foreservice

(They can also be found using the tags Neologism, Word Nerd, and Words respectively on my blog. THANKS!)

[alliterative-endlessknot]

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is PONTIFF/FIND #wotd #find #pontiff #pontifex #pope

[shieldmaiden19]

(From this article on the history of the word OK/okay.)

I will now be signing off on all text messages to my queer peers with “OKKBWP” because DAMN.