Volume 21 Number 2 Article 27
Winter 10-15-1996
At the Wordface: J.R.R. Tolkien's Work on the Oxford English Dictionary
Peter M. Gilliver
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Recommended Citation Gilliver, Peter M. (1996) "At the Wordface: J.R.R. Tolkien's Work on the Oxford English Dictionary," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 21 : No. 2 , Article 27. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol21/iss2/27
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Abstract A description of J.R.R. Tolkien’s time working on the Oxford English Dictionary together with a detailed analysis of the evidence for his contribution to the entries for individual words.
Additional Keywords lexicographer; Oxford English Dictionary
This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol21/iss2/27 At the Wordface: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Work on the Oxford English Dictionary
Peter M. Gilliver
Abstract: A description of J.R.R. Tolkien’s time working on the Oxford English Dictionary together with a detailed analysis of the evidence for his contribution to the entries for individual words.
Keywords: lexicographer, Oxford English Dictionary
That Tolkien considered his involvement in the compiling of 1919, I have had to rely instead on the available OED the Oxford English Dictionary in 1919-20 to have been time working papers. The Dictionary was passed to press in the well spent is shown by his observation that he “learned more form of bundles of slips, each bearing either illustrative in those two years than in any other equal period of my life” quotations (most of which were sent in by members of the (quoted in Carpenter, 1977, p. 101). That he also conceived public) or portions of editorial text. Much of this copy was an abiding affection for the Dictionary is evident from the donated to the Bodleian Library, along with some slips episode in Farmer Giles of Ham where “Four Wise Clerks of discarded in the course of the editorial process, but not Oxenford”, consulted as to the meaning of blunderbuss, reply before the extraction and dispersal of three components of with the OED definition (the Clerkes being of course the four the text: materials relating to Scottish, Middle English, and original Editors of the OED).' As a lexicographer at work on early Modem English were (somewhat haphazardly) the same dictionary some seventy years later, I was separated out and dispatched to the historical dictionary interested to leam what I could about Tolkien’s tasks and projects concerned. Various other contemporaneous bodies working methods. of material still reside in the archives of Oxford Dictionaries, Long before the completion of its first edition in 1928, the including slips intended for use in the preparation of the 1933 Oxford English Dictionary was already justly famous as the Supplement. The standard “Dictionary slip” was a quarter- largest survey of the English language ever undertaken.1 2 sheet of foolscap, but some contributors sent in quotations on Work began in the 1850s under the auspices of the more or less any similarly-sized piece of paper that came to Philological Society, and publication began in 1884 with the hand, and many of the lexicographers did likewise: in their first instalment, or fascicle, under the editorship of its first case this included tom-up proofs of earlier OED fascicles and most famous Editor, James Murray. To increase the rate and, crucially, discarded earlier drafts of editorial material.3 of progress Henry Bradley was appointed as a second Editor (Of course, a slip of paper discarded by Tolkien might not be in 1887; he was later joined by William Craigie and Charles re-used until it was picked up years later by another Onions. Sir James Murray died in 1915, so that when lexicographer.) Some slips must have been destroyed Tolkien arrived there remained three teams of lexicographers altogether, and many others are presently unavailable proceeding through separate swathes of the alphabet, each because of the aforementioned dispersal of the slips; but by headed by an Editor. At the beginning of 1919 the letters U- examining the remaining material for the letter W, I hope Z and parts of S had not yet appeared in print: Tolkien was that I have managed to reconstruct a reasonably full picture assigned to Henry Bradley’s team, which had just begun of Tolkien’s involvement in the creation of Dictionary text. work at the beginning of W. Tolkien’s background and (Although he could conceivably have been involved in the philological training suited him particularly well for work on coverage of words beginning with other letters, the vocabulary of Germanic origin, in which W was probably the manuscript evidence available to me suggests otherwise, at richest of the remaining letters. least as far as the first edition of the OED is concerned.) Having been unable to consult the diary which, Precise dating of most of Tolkien’s lexicographical work is uncharacteristically, Tolkien kept from the beginning of difficult, since very few slips (and none of Tolkien’s) bear
1 Another passage in Tolkien’s creative writing which contains a concealed reference to the OED occurs in the Notion Club Papers, where “Michael Ramer” ponders the implications of an 1877 definition of the word crystal by Thomas Huxley, which is cited in the OED entry for the word (Tolkien, 1992, p. 208). 2 For a more comprehensive account of the history of the OED see Murray, 1977. 3 Tolkien also made use of these for other purposes: parts of a revision of The Fall of Gondolin were written on drafts of the etymology of wariangle (Tolkien, 1984, p. 147). The versos of slips are also informative about other OED workers: see Dutton, 1987. 174 J. R. R. TOLKIEN CENTENARY CONFERENCE
Figure 1: OED slips, headword Warm, etymology. (Reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library) any indication of when they were written. A certain amount rather than the OED - although, as we shall see, this work can be deduced from the dates stamped on bundles of slips did in fact continue to benefit the Dictionary. Tolkien when they were sent for typesetting: for example, Tolkien remained in touch with Henry Bradley after ceasing to work must have started writing definitions before 3 April 1919, for OUP, as is shown by a postcard from Leeds, dated 26 which is when the first bundle to which he contributed was June 1922, in which he quotes an Anglo-Saxon riddle (which sent to press. Beyond this, all that is certain regarding the he describes as enigma saxonicum nuper invention), but it start of his work is that by the end of March 1919, according seems unlikely that the contact was more than social.5 As for to Oxford University Press accounts, he had been paid one- the order in which Tolkien performed the main body of his and-a-half months’ salary, although this may have been for lexicographical work - the drafting of Dictionary entries - I work begun late in 1918 and carried out part-time. have had to assume that work proceeded through the (Humphrey Carpenter’s biography states that Tolkien joined alphabetical sequence, as it does in Oxford Dictionaries the staff of the Dictionary in November, soon after the today, and have therefore described it in alphabetical order Armistice.) The OUP accounts also show that he ceased to by headword, except where there is good reason to do be paid out of Dictionary funds at the end of June 1920, but otherwise. that for the last month he was engaged in work connected According to Humphrey Carpenter, in his first weeks with an anthology of Middle English texts (Sisam, 1921)4 Tolkien “was given the job of researching the etymology of
4 Tolkien’s contribution was the preparation of a glossary, which appeared separately as A Middle English Vocabulary (1922) — his first published book. 5 Later in 1923 Tolkien’s riddle was published in the anthology A Northern Venture (Leeds University English School Association, 1923) under the heading “Enigmata Saxonica Nuper Inventa Duo”. The cordiality of Tolkien’s relations with Bradley are vividly conveyed in the heartfelt obituary (signed “J.R.R.T.”): “To see him working in the Dictionary Room at the Old Ashmolean and to wotk for a time under his wise and kindly hand was a privilege not at that time looked for. [. . .] The Memory of more recent years recalls with a sense of great loss his piled table in the Dictionary Room; and many, whether occasional visitors, or workers in that great dusty workshop, that brownest of brown studies, preserve a picture of him as he sat writing there, glimpses of him momentarily held in thought, with eyes looking into the grey shadows of the roof, pen poised in the air to descend at last and fix a sentence or a paragraph complete and rounded, without blot or erasure, on the paper before him” (Tolkien, 1923). The obituary ends with an alliterative verse tribute to Bradley, once again in Anglo- Saxon. AT THE WORDFACE 175 warm, wasp, water, wick {lamp), and winter" (Carpenter, when some assistants were not competent to deal with 1977, p. 101). The extent to which Tolkien’s work on these certain aspects of particular entries, such as the etymology of etymologies was made use of by later editors is, a word derived from an unusual language (in some cases unfortunately, uncertain, since many of the relevant slips are these were even left to be added in proof). missing: however, most of the etymology of warm at least is The raw material for the creation of Dictionary text, in Tolkien’s hand, and although it is completed in Henry namely the quotation slips, would have already undergone Bradley’s hand, it is likely that this is based on an earlier some initial processing by the time an assistant such as draft by Tolkien (see figure 1). Tolkien came to work on it: this included sorting into Probably even before this etymological research, and alphabetical order (no small task) and, in the case of more certainly before he began to draft entries on a substantial complex words, preliminary arrangement of slips scale, Tolkien embarked on an ancillary task which drew approximately by sense. Some of the sub-editors who carried upon his thorough knowledge of Old English, and whose out this work went further, and wrote first drafts of results were made use of long after he had given up work on definitions.6 A great many of these editorial slips were, the Dictionary. At some stage during the collection of however, rejected by the “official” lexicographers, including quotation evidence, numerous important Old and Middle Tolkien, as is shown by the fact that definitions by these later English texts had been examined by readers who copied out workers are frequently written on the backs of the earlier illustrative quotations but were unable to lemmatize the drafts. words illustrated, that is, to convert the form occurring in the Tolkien’s first editorial range appears to have been a short text to the form with which a dictionary entry would be one consisting of the verb waggle and its cognates. Quite headed. Tolkien was one of a small number of people who what training he will have received is not at all clear: it lemmatized these slips by writing the correct lemmas seems most likely to me that once embarked on drafting alongside the cited forms noted by the less able readers, proper, assistants would be expected to learn from their thereby allowing the slips for each lemma to be placed mistakes. Certainly these early slips show an incomplete together. Quotations of this type exist for words in the range grasp of “house style”, as can be seen from the number of waedle to wursien. corrections made by Bradley, who also rewrote the Somewhat surprisingly, I have found very little evidence etymology of waggle v. completely (see figure 2). This initial that Tolkien habitually wrote out quotations encountered range (waggle to waggly) was evidently returned with during his everyday reading, as his colleagues certainly did: annotations to Tolkien, who made some further corrections. slips sent in by readers from all over the English-speaking Tolkien also wrote out two quotations for an unrelated word world were, of course, still flooding in - as they do to this (dealt with for the most part by Bradley), wag{g)el “a name day — and it must surely have been as automatic for for the Black-backed Gull, Larus marinus, in its immature lexicographers in Tolkien’s time as it is now for myself and state”, probably through finding misfiled references to them my colleagues to contribute quotations from their own among the evidence for waggle. reading in the same way. However, apart from a single His next task, alphabetically, was to work on parts of the quotation for the word smirkle, taken from Lewis Carroll’s entry for the noun wain (wagon). He may have dealt with the Sylvie and Bruno, no quotations in Tolkien’s handwriting for whole entry, but all slips relating to the three main published words outside the letter W have come to light. The existence senses show evidence only of Bradley’s hand, and it seems of one slip, nevertheless, does suggest that there were others more likely that Tolkien was assigned only the etymology which simply cannot be found; which is a pity, since they and the end of the entry (where combinations such as wain- would have provided an interesting glimpse of Tolkien’s house and wain-trees are dealt with). Characteristically, the recreational reading habits. long etymological note contains a speculation about the After some little time spent in learning his job, then, ultimate derivation of the word, which Bradley felt obliged Tolkien at last started work on the drafting of Dictionary to tone down (see figures 3a and 3b). entries. This central task seems to have been organized much The same division of labour between Tolkien and Bradley as it is today: each assistant was allocated an alphabetical is observed in the case of waist: here, however, several of the range by his or her Editor, and would deal with all aspects of waist- combinations require entries of their own, and in some the final text — pronunciation, spelling variants, and cases division into senses. Thus having organized the final etymology, as well as the defining of the various senses and paragraphs of the entry for the main noun, Tolkien proceeded the selection and copy-editing of illustrative quotations. The to write full entries for waistband (two senses), waist-cloth text prepared in this way would eventually be revised by the (three senses), and — after considerable deliberation (surely Editor, who frequently made substantial changes such as re to be expected of a future connoisseur of the garment) — classifying the senses (and rewriting the definitions waistcoat (see figure 4). In fact Tolkien identified no less accordingly), choosing different quotations, and even than four distinct varieties of garment denoted by this word, deciding to reject a word entirely, often because of a paucity two of which he further subdivided into several subsenses of quotation evidence. Variations to this routine were made (including at least three senses omitted from the published
6 For a full account of the various stages of the editorial process, see the article “The history of the Oxford English Dictionary” which appears in the prefatory matter to the Second Edition of the OED. See also Murray, 1977. 176 J. R. R. TOLKIEN CENTENARY CONFERENCE
Figure 2: OED slips, headword Waggle, (a) noun (start); (b) verb (first sense). (Reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library) AT THE WORDFACE 177
Figure 3a: OED slips, headword Wain, etymology. (Reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library) entry), with two historical notes in small type completing the were, in any case, something of a handful, there being thorough description. (The note attached to sense la is in possibly as many as five etymologically distinct words, of Bradley’s hand, but is probably based on a first draft by which three were eventually included. It may be worth Tolkien.) examining some of the evidence left by Tolkien of his After waistcoat follow several other waist- compounds and deliberations about two of these (see figure 5). The senses to derivatives (waisted, waist-rail and the like). The complex do with vigils and wakefulness go back to Middle English, word wait was dealt with by Bradley, but he once again although now surviving only in connection with funerals allowed Tolkien to “mop up” the related words, including (especially in Irish contexts) and some rural English waiting (together with combinations such as waiting-room merrymaking. Once again Tolkien’s impulse was to say and waiting-woman), wait-a-bit (a South African plant, more about the history of the word and its connotations than whose diversity of spelling received comprehensive Bradley could allow space for: the final draft of the treatment before the simplifying touch of Bradley’s pen) and published sense 3 carried a small-type note in which Tolkien waiter, whose eleven senses were left much as Tolkien observed, “This custom (cf. next sense) appears never to drafted them. In a dictionary the size of the OED even have been free from frivolous or disorderly tendencies. It nonce-words can find room; however, at this stage in the now survives most vigorously in Ireland, or colonies of project the Editors were under considerable pressure to keep Irish.” This (deleted) note represents the last stage in a long the volume of text down as much as possible, and so struggle to convey a sense of the word’s overtones: earlier Tolkien’s original full-scale entries for waiterage (“the drafts of sense 4b (originally further subdivided into two performance of a waiter’s duties”), waiterdom (“waiters subsenses by Tolkien) show a whole succession of attempts considered as a class, or collectively”), waiterhood (“the state to capture aspects of a rural English wake: or condition of a waiter”) and waitering (“the occupation of a very frequently mentioned with disapproval as waiter”) were subsequently condensed into a subentry under characterised by riot, drunkenness, and dissolute waiter, and his definition of waiterful (“as much of anything conduct as can be carried on a waiter, or tray”) was omitted entirely. a typical scene of uncultured excess or of With the exception of waith and waive and their cognates, unsophisticated simple speech the next five pages of the published Dictionary are closely associated with the preservation of certain rustic sports based on Tolkien’s work, including entries for the various as wrestling, single-sticks etc. [. . .] also used as a kinds of wake — the nouns, that is: Bradley apparently typical scene of boorish, sometimes unsophisticated or considered the main verb too important or difficult for simple, speech and manners Tolkien at this stage, wrote the etymology himself and left the holiday-making marked by fairs, sports and often the senses to be defined by another assistant. The nouns riot and drunkenness incident to such annual local 178 J. R. R. TOLKIEN CENTENARY CONFERENCE feasts. WAIN. The second etymologically distinct noun wake gave Tolkien problems of a different kind, to do with the + "Wa im in g . Obs. Also 4 w am m in g, 5 w ay- mynge. [Perh. a corruption of W ayment sb. or arrangement of the senses. At one point he copied out the W aymenting vbl. sb., perh. an alteration of w ain- OED definitions of several senses of the words rear and train ing, W oning vbl. sb ] Lamentation. onto separate slips, presumably as models on which to base a 1300 C u rso r M . 5721 H e herd fair waiming and vn-qnert. I b id . 14314 Iesus fair wamming t C o il, wainim;] vnderstod. his own treatment of the corresponding senses: indeed his C1420 Anturs of Arth. 87 (Douce MS.), Hit Jaules, hit final draft of the preamble to the phrase “in the wake o f’ jameres, with waymynges wete. W aim to, obs. form of W ame-tow. suggested that “in these expressions WAKE is often Wain (vvein), sb.1 Forms: i weejn, (wesn), practically synonymous with train” - a remark deleted by ■wrsesen,ween, 2 -3 Orm .weJ^n, 3 - 7 way ne,waine, Bradley as not in keeping with the usually self-contained 4 -7 w ayn, (5 w a y en , 6 w a a y n e, 4 Sc. v a y n ), 4 - 5 style of OED entries, with minimal cross-referencing. w ey n e, (,5 w en e, 6 weens, weane, 7 w ea n , w h en e), 5 -7 w an e, 3- wain. [OE. wtvgen, vusen, Tolkien was clearly still learning. sir. masc. = OFris. wcin str. masc. (mod. WFris. The words following wake (except for an entry for wake- vein, worn, win, NFris. wein, waKi)nf), OLow robin) belonged to the ranges of other assistants. Tolkien’s Frankish rciiii-wagan (MDu. -waeghen, Du. zoagcn), MLG., LG. zvagen.OlA.kj .wagan str.masc.(MliG., next word was wallop: both the relatively straightforward G. wagert), ON . vagn str. masc. cart, barrow (Norw. noun, and the verb, concerning the etymology of which vagn the Great Bear, vogn cart, Da. vogn, Sw. vagn Tolkien provides no less than five paragraphs of scholarly cart) OTeut. *ivagno-z :—pre-Teut. -zaoghno-s f. speculation, hardly altered at all by Bradley, who by this Indogermanic root *wegh-, *wogh- to carry, etc.: cf. stage clearly had considerable confidence in him (see figure W eigh, W aw vbs., W ay sb. Outside Teut. cog nate words of similar meaning are Irish f i n (:— pre- 6) - sufficient confidence to entrust him with the Old English Celtic *zveghtw-s) wagon, Gr. oxos (/vX 0S word walm (synonymous in some senses with wallop, which *zvogho-s), chariot, Skr. vahana neut., vahana is perhaps why Tolkien was given both to do). Incidentally, ne.it., chariot. The pre-Teut. form may possibly have been *w eghtio-s, Tolkien apparently had sufficient evidence for the bizarre cot responding with the pi e-Cel tic form; there is some evi expression “the right to wallop one’s own nigger” to draft a dence of an OTeut. change of zue- to wa- before consonant g ro u p s.] slip for it, but must have excised it from his entry at a fairly 1. A large open vehicle, drawn by horses or oxen, early stage, judging from its provisional sense number. for carrying heavy loads, esp. of agricultural pro In the next few pages of the Dictionary, most of which is duce ; usually four-wheeled (but see 1 b) ; a wagon. The word does not occur in the Bible of 1611, though the work of others, Tolkien contributed to three other W yjif and the 16th c. translators use it. As a colloquial isolated words: walnut, walrus and wampum. I am sure that word it survives only in dialects, but in poetry it is com- monly used instead of w agon. the reason for this departure from the usual assignment of a B eo -.u u /f 3134 J aer waes wunden gold on t a n hladen. c 715 Co>pus C l. (Hessels) U 143 U e n ic u h tju [read Uehiculurn], continuous alphabetical range is that all three words turned waegn. c 1250 C en. 4- E x . 2362 H e bad cartes and waines out to have unusually tricky etymologies. Frustratingly, the ntnien, And fechen wiues, and childre, and men, And gaf hem (tor al lond gersen. 1297 R. G louc. (Rolls) 8596 Pat entire entry for wampumpeag (the Algonquian word from per nas non so heuy charge of wayn ne of oVn.r [tinge pat which wampum derives) is missing; but Tolkien’s me ne mi^te ouer grete wateres hope lede & bringe. a 1300 C u r so r M . 5229 His suns all and pair flitting,..In weynis deliberations over walnut and walrus have certainly left their war pai don to lede. 1375 B arbour B ru c e x. 164 That apon his cowyn gat he Men that mycht [ane] enbuschement ma, mark.7 In the case of walrus at least six neatly written Quhill that he vith his vayn suld ga 'Till lede thaim hay versions (of which figure 7 is probably one of the earliest) of iii-to the peill. Ib id . xt. 24 A litill stane oft, as men sayis, May ger weltir ane mekill wane. 1398 T r e v is a B a r th . D e the etymology precede the final printed form, all attempting F . l i . xvn. l.xxii. (1495) 646 And at the laste heye is led home in cartes and in waynes and broughte in to heroes for dyuers to reconstruct the route by which Old Norse rosmhvalr or vse and nedes. 1432-50 tr. H ig d c tt (R olls) 1 . 137 Thei haue rosmall arrived in Dutch (from which it was borrowed into noo liow-es, caryenge theire wyfes and children in waynes [L . in plaustris]. 1449 Yatton Churchw. Acc. (Somerset English in the seventeenth century) as walrus. Bradley was Rec. S0CJ92 For custom for our wene to Bristowe warde comyng and goyng, iiij d. 1473 Rental Bk. Cupar-Angns obviously pleased with the result since when the fascicle (1879) 1. r82 The said tenandis. .sal led to theabbay viii score W—Wash was published in October 1921, walnut, walrus and of fuderis of petis the abbai fyndand wanis meit and drink to theledaris. 1521 Lincoln IVills(iqn) 1.88 To William myson wampum were amongst the few entries singled out in its my bonden wane, ij oxen that cam from Hornecastell.fetc.]. Introduction as containing “etymological facts or suggestions 15*3 34 F i t z h e r b . H u sb . § 5 And or he shall lode his come, he muste haue a wayne, a copyoke, (etc.]. 1576 A c t 18 E liz . not given in other dictionaries”. c. 10 § 1 Everye person. .shalbe charged to finde. .one Carte Wayne Tum brell.. Carres or Dragges furnished forthamend- Tolkien seems next to have been assigned the whole of the ment..of the Highe wayes within the severall Parishes. range containing the challenging words wan, wander and 1588 in Archxologia LXIV. 366 For viij weanes of Pillese- ley which ladd Timber from Penttridge, xvj d. 1617 M o r v - wane. Whether or not there is any truth in the suggestion, s o n / tin . 111. 19 Alexander the great set on fier with his owtie hands the wanes of cairiage taken from Darius. 1627 often made, that in his creative writing Tolkien brings M ay L a c a n v. I i, The horses trample ore Safely where particular enthusiasm to his descriptions of “bad things”, he ships haue saild ; the Besxians Furrow Maeutis frozen backe with waines. 1641 B e s t F a r m . B k s. (Surtees) 46 Wee leade certainly relished the task of working out the sense- in our winter come usually with three waines. 1688 W. S cot Hist. Natne Scot 1. (1894) 35 According to the old development of wan and wane. In particular he was intrigued Proverb, They but fell from the Wains tail. 1731 T. B o s t o n that wan, which in Old English had meant “dark, gloomy, M em . vii. (1899) 106 On Thursday..came the wains with the household-furniture from Dunse. 1784 C o w p e r T a s k 7 Tolkien’s daughter Priscilla has kindly informed me that he was Figure 3b: OED, fascicle W-Wash, p. 19 (part). sufficiently exercised by these two words in particular to discuss them at home. AT THE WORDFACE 179
■WAISTCOAT. 23 WAIT. well for the..grace of the ship, as to couer the men for + 8 . A short garment, often elaborate and costly, W aisted (wasted), a. [L Waist + -x d 2-] being scene. x66o P etys D ia r y 16 M ay, "We. .had our gnus Having a waist (usn. of specified sire or form). ready to fire, and oar scarlet warst-cnoathes oat and silk worn by women about the upper part of the body pendants. 2840 H or. S m ith O . C rouew ei l I. 284 Hundreds (usually beneath an outer gown, bat so as to be (For parasynthetic formation^ as d e e p fa ir-, of lighters, pinnaces and longboats dressed up with waist- seen). Obs. long-, shorl-waisled’ see the first element.) cloths and with streamers. In the 16th and early r/th c. the waistcoat was one of the 138s S tan th uest cE nets etc. tArb.) 142 Sbec limps in tbs 2 . N a u t . A hammock-cloth stowed in the waist normal garments of women, having superseded the p la c a rd going,..A nd as a cow wasted plods on, with ati bead like a and stom acher. Later in the 17th c. (when goiug out lutcease. 2814 New Monthly Mag. XI. 124 Beautiful as of a vesseL youth; Waisted like Hebe; and with Dions step. 2923 *815 Falconer's Diet, Marine (ed. B u r n e y Waist-cloths, of fashion), esp. if worn without an upper gown, it appears to have been considered a mark of a low-class woman of E . T . Leed s ArtJueoi. A nglo-Sax. Settlements vu. 232 A coverings of canvas or tarpauling for the hammocks, which peculiar waisted beaker with rounded base often terminating are stowed on the gang-ways, between the quarter-deck and ill-re pule (see W aistcoateer 1) . oohde in an excrescent knob. fore-castle. 1867 S m yth Sailor’s Word-bk., Wsist-clotks, 2547 B Brev. Health cxxxviii. (1557) 51, I cause a the painted canvas coverings o f the hammocks which are man to lye in his doublet, and a woman in ner waste cote. W a iste r (woi-stw). Naut. [f. W aist + -kb 1.] stowed in the waist-nettings. 2603 D ek x e r Batch. Bang. iii. C a b , Then comes downe (See qnots. 3 . A loin-cloth tliat the natives of hot climates mistresse Nurse, as fine as a farthing fiddle, in her petticoate 2825 Falamer's Diet. Marine (ed. Burney), JV a iste rs, a and kertle, hauing on a white wastcoate, with a flaunting name given, to the men stationed in the waist in working wear round the waist, either hanging down in front carabrickeruffe about her neck. 1688 H olme A rm o u ry iu. or passed between the thighs. 95/1 Wastcoat or W aistcoat.. is an Habit or Garment gene the ship. 2846 A . Y oung Naut. Diet., Waisiers, 'green rally worn by the middle and lower sort of Woaien. 2722 hands, or broken-down seamen placed in the waist of a ship x8xo T. W illiamson E . In d . Vade Mecuttt L 247 The o f war, to do duty not requiring a knowledge of seamanship. A ddison S p e d . H o. 15 i» 4 A Furbelow of precious Stones, an dress of the doby is .generally very plain, consisting of a 2850 H. M e l v il l e White Jacket I. iii. 12 Then, there are turban, a dotee, (or waist-cloth,) and a chudder.\ (or sheet). Hat buttoned with a Diamond, a Brocade Waistcoat or the Waisters, always stationed on the gun-deck. These haul 183S C ou rt M a r. VI. 65/2 Sometimes black glazed jackets Petticoat, are standing Topicks. aft the fore and main-sheets, besides being subject to ignoble formed part of their attire; but generally it consisted of f b. Applied to garments of foreign women that duties; attending to the drainage [etc.]. 1854 J . H an nay nothing more than a blue checquered dotee, or waistcloth. resembled the contemporary feminine waistcoat. S a n d 4- S h e lls 13 Mr. Crabb relieved his feelings by peg x88a D b Windt E q u a t o r B i The deceased is then brought 2600 H a k l u y t V oy. I I I . 36^ The {Indian] women weare ging into an idle ' w aster ’ with his 1 colt . op attired in his waistcloth and ornaments. of the sayd Turqueses at their nostrils and eares, and very W aistlesB (wFi-sties), a. [f. Waist + -less.] W a istc o a t (w**'s(t)kuot; c o ilo q . or v u lg a r good wast-coats and other garments. 2648 G age W est In d . Having no waist; having the appearance of being we’skat). For forms see W a i s t and C o a t sb. also xii. 56 Their Wascoats made like bodies, with skirts, laoed likewise with gold or silver. 1653 Greaves S e ra g lio 250 without a waist. 6 wasooat, 7 waiscot, waaecoat, -cote, was- They [the women] likewise sleep as the men do, m their 1500-30 D unbas Poem s xxvi. 07 Full mony a waistless coate, -cot, -cote, -oott. Hnnen breeches, and quilted waste-coats. 2707 F unnell wallydrag With waxnis* vnweildablc, did forth wag. In In representations of vulgar pronunciation written D a m p ler s V o y . ix. 254 [ I'be Malayan women] wear a creische that did in cress. 2796 Sporting Mag. V II I. 183 To xtesJkit, etc. Linnen Waste-coat, which reaches no lower than the lower conform to fashion's sway, Betsey is become waistless. 2870 A garment covering the upper part of the body part of their Breasts. M iss B roughton Red as Rose J- 222 T heir little, bustless, *t* c. A shoit (sleeveless) undergarment worn waistless, hipless figures. 2920 Su ffl in g Eng. Ch. Brasses down to the waist. 228 It is a life size figure, habited in a long flowing gown, 1 * A garment forming part of ordinary male about the upper part of the body; a camisole. Obs. waistless and without ornament of any kind. 2580 H ollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Vue Chemise de drap, attire, worn under an outer garment (a doublet, or chemisette, a wastcoat. 1747 L a d y M. W. M ontagu Waist-rail. later a coat, jacket, or the like), and intended to Town E d , St. Jam es's Coffee-house 75 Her night-cloaths 1. Naut. (See quot. 1867.) be partly exposed to view when in wear. tumbled with resistless grace, And her bright hair p lay’d 2804 D uncan Mariner’s Chron. Pref. n. xix, Drift-rails, The earliest waistcoats, intended to show through the careless round her face; Reaching the kettle, made her fife-rails, sheer-rails, waist-rails, & c. 2867 S myth S a ilo r 's slashings and other openings o f the doublet^ Were often gown unpin, She wore no waistcoat, and her shift was thin. Word.bit, Waist-raxL the channel-rail or moulding o f the extremely elaborate and costly. They were sometimes pro 2783 M iss F ie l d in g O phelia I. vii, I (a woman] had never sh ip s side vided with sleeves, and appear to have reached to or below worn any thing round my waist but thin waistcoats. 2 . Carriage-builazng. (See qnot.) the hips. The waistcoat has now armholes, but not sleeves; d. A garment or a bodice-front designed in 2884 F orney Car-builder's Diet. (Cent.), W aist-rail, a it may be made of the same material as the coat, or of dif imitation of the masculine waistcoat. horuontal piece in the framing of the side of a passenger- ferent materials, and is sometimes embroidered or other 2 7 11 T ick e l l Spectator^ No. 704 T 3. 28x4 S cott R e d - carriage. wise ornamented. The back is now o f inferior or thinner rau n t le t ch. xvii, Trolloping things our mothers must have Waist-tree, Naut. (See quot. 1846.) material. fooked fin riding dress of the 28th c.], with long sqnare-cut 15x9 Nottingham Rec. TIL 354 For makyng of a waste *483 Nov. Act. Hen. ^7/(1896) 50 Wasi trees..ij. 16*7 coats, ..and with waistcoats plentifully supplied with a length C art. J . S mith S e a G ra m . ii. p I k e Waist boords are se t vp cotte. 1599 B. J onson Cynthia's Rev. it. i, H ee has a rich o f pocket, which [etc.]. 1883 T ru th 3 r M ay 768/2 The bodice in the Ships waist, betwixt the Gun-waile and the waist wrought was t-coat to entertaine his visitants in. 1849 K. had a sweet little waistcoat, over which the edges of the Chat. Sp. Scaffold 7 The King..being in his Wastcoat, trees. 2704 J . H arris Lex. Tedqi. I , Watt-Trees, are embroidered linen almost met. 19 13 Play Pictorial No. those Timbers of a Ship which He in the Waste. 2846 A. put his Cloak on again. x666 P kpys D ia r y ao June, I have 134 p. iL/i Waistcoats [for ladies] are growing more and of late taken too much cold by washing my feet and going Y oung Naut. D id., Waist-Tree or Rough-Tree, a spare more in popularity, and the waistcoat blouse is one o f the spar placed along the side of a ship's waist where there in a thin silke waistcoale, without any other coate over it, latest novelties. and open-breasted. 17 11 S wift Jm l. to Stella a8 Nov., happens to be no bulwark, in order to protect persons from Doroville saw Savage in Italy, and says he is a coxcomb, 5 . attrib. and Comb., as waistcoat button, -piece, falling overboard. and half road : he goes in red, and with yellow waistcoats. -pocket (hence -pocketful), -string. W a it (w£t), sb. Forms : 3-7 wayte, waite, 1791 Bosw ell Jo h n so n an. 2781, x Apr., Sir Philip Jen 2767 in Sixth Rep. Dep. Kpr. Pubi. Rec. App. it. 178 Of (5 wayet, whayte), 4-7 wayt, 4, 7 weyte, (6 nings Clerk..wore..an embroidered waistcoat, and very a new method of making..Coat and "Waistcoat Buttons. weytte, watte), 5-6 wate, (5 watte), 6 waytte rich laced ruffles. 1837 D ick ens P ic k ™ , x, H e was habited 2839 Habits o f Gd. Society iii. 242 Elaborate studs, waist in a coarse-striped waistcoat, with black calico sleeves, and coat-buttons, and wrist-links, are all abominable. 283a (waitte, wayght, woyght, wyethe, wfcet), 7 blue glass buttons. x86o * L ew is C arroll* P h a n ta sm a , H t. M a r tin e a u H i l l V a l l e y i. (ed. 4) 12 There is not a waight, (weight), 4- wait. [Partly a. ONF. *wait, ro ria 71 He would keep nis right-hand buried (Like Napo shop within twenty miles that would furnish me with such welmasc. (*= OF .guaii,gait,guct, modJt.guet, Pi. leon) in his waistcoat. a "’waistcoat-piece as 2 should choose to wear. 2760 J ohnson I d le r N o. 95 P 1 2 He now openly declares bis Resolution gack, gait), vbl. noun f. readier (see W a i t v .) and *t* b. Applied to a plainer and less costly gar ONF. waite fem. (OF. guaile, guile, mod.F. ment, usually of knitted wool, worn chiefly for to become a Gentleman;.. carries Silver, for Readiness, in his ‘•Waistcoat pocket. *887 R d sk jn P rm terita I L 15 3 The guette, gulte, Pr. gacha, gaita) ; it is uncertain additional warmth. Ohs. portress receiving a sort of dirty flattened sixpence..and whether the fem. sb. is f. the vb., or a direct 1585 H igins Juniud Nomsitcl. 163/* Indus/urn,, .a waste returning me a waistcoat-pocketful of the loveliest clean- coat;, or wo Hen peticoate. 1591 F lOrio 2nd F r tales 5 struck centime*. 2835 D ic k en s Sk. Boz, Mr. Watkins adoption from Teut. (cf. OHG. wahia, Goth. T. Giue me my wastecote. R. Which will you haue, th ato f T o t lie ii, Watkins falling bump on his knees, and breaking wahtwd) : see W a i t v. The word adopted from flannel? T. No, giue me that which is knit. 2617 M oryson two brace-buttons and a "waist coat-string in the act. Fr. has coalesced with an E n g . formation on W a it I tin . 1. 68, I hauing for the cold at Dantzke, in the begin Hence Wal’stooatfdi nonce-rod., a3 much (of ning of September, put on a wollen wasecoat, was forced v. Cf. A w a it sb. now at the eutring of Italy, for the great heat in the end anything) as would fill, or cover, the waistcoat. Many apparent examples of this word in texts of *4-i6tb c. o f October, to p at o ff the same. 2698 Ogilby’s B rit., I tin, W aistcoatiJig', a textile fabric made esp. for men’s really belong Co the synonymous A w ait which. Idee other 4/1 Doncaster...Enjoys a good Trade for Stockings and waistcoats. W al‘«tcoatleu, a ., wearing no waist words beginning with a prefix, was often written as two Knit Wastcoats, &c. 2722 S w ift Jm l. to Stella 5 O c t, coat. words. It is possible that the ex was in the i 6tb c. sometimes It grows bloody cold, and I have no waistcoat here. apprehended by writers and r&adere as the indefinite article, 1834 L andor I mag. Com/^ Cav. Punlomichino <5- M r . but distinct evidence of this is wanting.] c. phr. t I n one's waistcoat ; tsf>. as the typical T a lcra n a g k Wks.1853 L 171/2 The people, .would have I . The action of W a i t v A undress of exercise implying the casting aside of added new decorations to his * waist coatfof o f orders. 1809 X. In various phrases with the general sense : To an upper garment (cf. mod. in one's shirt-sleeves'). M ar. E dgeworth Tales Fash. Life 11. D u n 313 Mrs. Carver bespoke from him two pieces o f "waistcoating. x86a C a ta l take up a concealed position in order to make an 'obs.) Under ones waistcoat : in one’s breast. Internal. Exhib., Brit. II. N o. 4072, Fancy waist coatings unforeseen attack, or to be in readiness to intercept 2607 B. Ba r ne s Droits Charter iv. v. lab , Eater Astor and skirtings, a 2876 M. C ollins P e n S k . (1879) L io, I sat and Philippo in their wasr-cotes with rackets. 1839 H. in his courtyard, coatless and *waistcoatless- one’s enemy or intended prey in passing ; to lurk K ingsley G . H a m lyn xxxix, With all our vanity and ab (w/i-s(t)k/mted), a. [f. W aist in ambush. surdity, we Irish have good warm hearts under our waistcoats. Waistcoated coat + -bd 2.] Provided with a waistcoat. j - a . To sit inwait{s. Obs. rare. (cf. A w a it sb.) + d. Applied to a child’s first garment. O hs. 1798 C h arlo tte S mith Yng. Philos. L *7 He..was panta a 2300 E . E. Psalter ix. 29 H e sites in waites [Vulg.in iu- 1538 E lyo t Diet., Crepundia. .the fyrst apparayle o f loon ed and waistcoated after the very newest fashion. 2897 s id iis j with riche of land In derne, to sla J>e vnderand. 2667 chyldren, as swathels, wastcotes, and such lyke. M a r is C o r elli Z is k a i, His p aunch..a kind of waistcoated M ilton P . L . iv.825 W hy satst thou likean enemie in waite Q. t r a n s f. Applied to the plumage of birds, or air balloon. Here watching at the head of these that sleep ? the coat of animals, about the breast or stomach, b. with defining word prefixed. b . To lie (or flay) in wait, f Also, to lie at esp . where this is strikingly different in colour or 1838 D ick en s O . T w ist ii, A s I purpose to show in the {the) wait, to lie on wait. marking from that of the rest of the body. sequel whether the white-waistcoated gentleman was right c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. iv. 257 Formoldywarpes cattes is or not. 2896 R . B._ M a n sfiel d C h ips 224 M agpies..the to kepe To ligge in w ayte to touche hem with ber de. c 2449 1898 J . D . R e e s in zQth C en t. Ju n e 1024 A woodpecker black-coated and white-waistcoated gentry. P ecocic R ep r. 1. x ix . 123 A s if perauenture io oon of Chilk with black wings a white waistcoat, and a crimson crest. Also7wastecoateer,-coater, weies a man liggith in wait for to sle my seid seruaunt. + 2 . A short outer coat or jacket; a ‘jersey*. W a i stcoatea r. 2430-1530 M yrr. our Ladye 311 The faythful sayitge of the a x6a8 F. G rkvil Life Sidney (1652) 24 H is wast-coat. . not wastcoatear, -coatier, westeooateer, 8 waate- crede chaseth aw ay feades whiche lye on wayte to hynder unlike the best sort of those woollen knit ones, which our cateer, 9 waiatcoatteer. [£. W a is t c o a t + - b e r .] men. 2503-4 A c t 19 H en . V H ,c . 36 Preamb., Stanhop..lay ordinary watermen row us in. 1765 in S ix t h R e f . D ep. K p r . f L A low-class prostitute. O bs. exc. H is t , in wayte uppon the seid sir William and hym grevously P u b l. R e c . App. ii. 234 Floats made of cork in the form of \ a 2616 B eaum. & F l. W it without Money rv. iv, L u ce . Doe wouneded. 2330 P alsgr. 605/2, 1 levin wayte o f one to do seamen’s waistcoats.. to prevent drowning. you thinke you are here sir amongst your-wastcoateers, your him a displeasure, a 1578 L indesay (Pilscottie) Chron. Scot. 3 . A short (woollen) garment worn next the base Wenches that scratch at such occasions? 2675 C h a r, (S.T.S.) 1. 31 Or evir he cuild peisawe the chancel laris folkk skin. Town-G’ntiant 3 Every thing with him is an Incentive to lyand in the wait for him he was invironit-and ciicuatt round about with thame. x6tz B ib l e P s . x . 9 He lieth In waite 1606 H o lla n d S u tto n . 75 In winter time clad he went Lust, and every Woman Devil enough to tempt him, Covent- against the colde with foure coates, together with a good Garden, Silk-gowns, and Wapping Wastcoatiers, are equally secretly as a lyon in his denni, he lieth in wait to catch the his Game. x8xa S cott N ig e l xvii, ‘ I know the face of poore. 2668 H. R o l l s Abridgm., Action sur Case 30 Si thick gowne, and his Wastcoate or Peticoate bodie of wool home dit dun an ter, que 3 lay lit wait a t shooters hill to rob len. *769 W . B uchan D orn. M ed . <1790) 347 A flannel yonder waistcoateer continued the guide. 2 . nonce-use. A person wearing a waistcoat of a him, action sur Ic case gist, a *67* W ood L i f e Sept. Figure 4: OED, fascicle W-Wash, p. 23. 180 J.R.R. TOLKIEN CENTENARY CONFERENCE W ake (w/ik), s& l Forms: 4 wak, woke, Sc. b. The local annual festival of an English (now walk, 6 wacke, also pi. (sense 4) waakes, chiefly rural) parish, observed (originally on the wakesses, waks, 2— wake. [In form the word feast of the patron saint of the church, but now corresponds to OE. *wacu str. fern., occurring once in usually on some particular Sunday and the two or nihlw aco night-watch. Compare also the wk. fem. three days following) as an occasion for making forms, MDu. w ake (D u. w aak), M L G . wake, holiday, entertainment of friends, and often for O H G . w acka (MHG., modG. wacke), wakeful village sports, dancing, and other amusements. ness, watching, watch, ON. vaka (MSw., Sw. In modem rustic use chiefly f l . in sing, sense and often vith sing, construction (cf. the double pi. iv a k e se s, in i6 th c . vaka, N orw . voka) watch, vigil, eve of a feast; w a k e sse s). The word is now current only in certain districts, related to W a k e v . In the sense * state of wake mainly northern and west midland ; elsewhere the equivalent fulness *, the sb. is prob. in part a new formation term is fe a s t or re v e ls . a 2225 A n c r . R . 314 Heo hefde ileaned one wummone to in ME. on the stem of W a k e v ., on the one wake on of hore weaden. cxzgo S. Eng. Leg. 423/38T analogy of sleep vb. and sb. In sense 4 adop ..... j t— ------tion from ON. is possible; the sense ‘merry making’ is found in ON. and Norw.; cf. ON. JSnsvaka, N o rvt. J 6ns(v\oka St. John’s Eve, Mid summer festivities.] W a t s (w F igu re 5: OED, fa s c ic le W—Wash, pp. 31-2 (part). AT THE WORDFACE 181 black”, should have come to be applied to pale or faint WALLOP. things: the published entry represents his final conclusions (Boxing) His opponent..has a prodigious * wallop \ but no (see figure 8), and is once again largely unchanged by great amount of skill. Bradley, but it does not suggest the welter of different b. dial. (Sc.) A (violent) beat of the heart or of the pulse. versions Tolkien considered, some of which are barely more 1787 B urns Addr. Unco Guid iv, Think, when your casti than strings of near-synonymous words, apparently jotted gated pulse Gies nowand then a wallop, W hat raginus must his veins convulse, That still eternal gallop. 1834 M actag- down in an attempt to clarify his thinking (e.g. “with gart Gallov. Encycl. 484,1 thought it [my hean) wad hae jum ped clean out o’ my brisket j lord 1 what wallops it gaed. connot[ations] of fading foulness unnatural pallor”; “anaemic 6 . A flapping or fluttering rag. Sc. emaciated”): the various versions between them contain *776 C. K eith Farmer's Ha' xxxiv, Beggars they come in gelore, W i’ wallops flapping in great store. 1866 G regor approximately forty “bad” adjectives and nouns, and even Banffsh. Gloss., Wallop, a rag hanging loose and fluttering. W allo p (wg-lap), v. Inflected -walloped the final form of the entry is unusually plentiful in these. The (wp-lapt), walloping. Forms: 4-5 walop(e, 5 verb wane may not have been all Tolkien’s work, although walloppe, 5-6 walap, wallope, 5-7 walopp(e, the etymology is in his handwriting (a number of the senses 9 wallup, wballup, wollnp, 6- wallop [a. ONF. are defined in Bradley’s hand, and I could find no rejected *ataloptr ■» F. galoper (see Gallop w.1). The existence of this form is evidenced in addition to versions by Tolkien): he did, however, deal with the archaic the English forms by OF. walos sb. pi. and the and obsolete nouns and adjective. By far the largest adopted form Flem. walop(pe, MHG. walop, -ap component of this range, however, was the work required on sb. MHG. walopiren vb., and probably by mod. Walloon (Sigart) ■waloptr to rinse linen in water. the verb wander and its cluster of related words. Once again Cf. Norw. ( Aasen) val(l )hoppa vb. ,app. an etymolo Tolkien’s final versions reach the printed page with little or gizing alteration, after Norw. hoppa to leap, dance. A satisfactory origin for this word in French has not been no alteration. (On the back of one quotation for wandering suggested. It is probably purely echoic, or an echoic altera are some rather curious jottings in Tolkien’s hand, which tion of some Teut. element or elements. The Provencal appear to be rapidly-noted examples of some consonantal r original w~ precludes the compat ison of the initial < changes occurring in Indo-European languages (see figure In English the onomatopoeic suggestion of the word has 9). I regret to say that I cannot connect this philological lent itself to varied extension of meanings and to a vague (usually colloq. and humorous) application to violent noisy doodle with either his lexicographical work or the invented movements, more especially since the form G allop ousted it from the more elevated uses (in the course of the 16th c.). languages he was working on at this time: it more probably The sense ‘to boil rapidly’ is probably derived directly by relates to an incidental rumination or discussion with a transference from sense 1 (cf. G allop v p to boil) in spite of the close resemblance of the word to W a l l u .' + up (cf. w e ll colleague. Some of the Greek jottings appear to be an tip, and D u. opivallen). The relation of P otwalloper to P otw aller indicates that some such association was active. illustration of the philological rule known as Grassmann’s The sense * to beat ’ may be ultimately due to the causative use (sense a, and c£ F. g a lo p er trans.), or may be entirely Law.) Two of Tolkien’s other entries in this range reflect his due to onomatopoeic extension.] awareness of the poetical qualities of words: early draft + L 1. ititr. To gallop. Obs. a. of horses. entries for the obsolete nouns wan “bruise” and wandreth a 1400 [see W alloping p p l. «.]. c 1430 S y r G ener. (R cxb.) “adversity” include a note of the other w- words which 3643 A 1 this folk of mych price in feire armes, and helmes shene,. .withe feire stedes walopand. c 1440 Promp. Parv. frequently co-occur with each of them in alliterative writing 514/2 Waloppon, as horse, volopto. c 1489 C axton Sonnes o f A y m o n xiv. 346 Cam there kyng charlemagn, as fast as — something not often commented on in OED definitions his horse myghte walop. 1513 D ouglas H i nets xi. x. 23 (and in fact deleted from wan by Bradley). In the case of (1710), He [the courser] sprentis furth, and ful proude waloppis he, Hie strekand vp his hede with mony ane ne. wandreth Tolkien perceived in these co-occurring words *570 L evin s M a n ip . 169/34 To gallop, fundere gradus, to W allop, idem, cursitare. (grouped as woe/wrake/wer and wele/welthe/worldes riches) b. of a rider. a basis for distinguishing two senses, denoting respectively 1375 B arbour B ruce n. 440 To this word thai assentyt all, And fra tbaim walopyt owyr mar. c 1430 W yntoun Cron. “evil circumstances, affliction, misery” and “embarrassment tv. 234 (Cott.) he cursoure he straik wi]>e be spuris, And walapande our floyis and furis A 1 befor be ost he rade. c 1440 of circumstances, poverty”: once again this was too G enerydes 3325 He founde anon The kyng of kynggez vppe expansive for the OED, and Bradley collapsed them into one and down ndeng, And he anon to hym com waloping. c 1500 M e lu s in e x x i. 130 And thenne the Knight broched hys hors, definition, although a brief comment on the word’s and waloped toward hys felawes. 1539 L yndesav Com pl. 179 And sum, to schaw thare courtlie corsis, Wald ryid to alliterative companions remains. leithj and ryn thare horssis, And wychtlie wallope ouer the Tolkien’s next word was want - one of the twenty or so sandis. 1731 R amsay Up in A i r i, And witches wallop o'er to France, Up in the air On my bony grey mare. commonest verbs in English, and surely ample evidence of + 2. trans. To let gallop, put to the gallop. Obs. Bradley’s willingness to let him tackle even the most rare. (Cf. Gallop w.i 3.) c 1489 C axton Blanckardyn xi. 42 Blanchardyn wyth a significant entries more or less without intervention or glad cnere waloped his courser as bruyauntly as he coude. 1490 — E neydos lxL 161 A knygbte.. came ayenste hym as correction. Of the twenty-eight separate definitions for the faste as he myghte spore and waloppe his horse. verb, nineteen of Tolkien’s slips went to press, including U . 3. intr. To boil violently and with a noisy bubbling. A ls o Jig . those for most of the main senses, and at least two more 1579 T omson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 19 1/2 Oure affections formed the basis of revised slips by Bradley. The early part boyle within vs, & wallop, frothing as a seething potte. 1617 J . M oore Mappe Mans M ortalitie 1. iii. 25 This corruption of the entry for the noun is missing, but most of what .. sendeth out the filthy scum of all vncleannesse, which con tinually broyleth and walloppeth in our nature, a 1649 S. remains in the manuscript is also Tolkien’s largely unaltered C rooke Div. Charact. L xxxiii. (1658) 499 There is little to choose between a boyling pot unscummed, and the pot that,* text. Isolated words, rather than alphabetical ranges, make up Figure 6 : OED, fascicle W-Wash, p. 53 (part). the rest of Tolkien’s contribution to the first edition of the OED. He dealt with the etymologically troublesome 182 J. R. R. TOLKIEN CENTENARY CONFERENCE Figure 7: OED reject slips, headword Walrus. (Reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library) wariangle (a name for the shrike, found in Chaucer), and *wilpijaz and *walpuz, and some general remarks about the with the once almost obsolete word warlock, which seems to sense-development of wold which are unusually chatty even have been revived by its use in the novels of Walter Scott: for Tolkien: unfortunately many slips for this entry are missing, but from The primitive meaning of this word was probably what remains it is clear that the etymology and sense- “wild, unexplored, or untilled land; wilderness”. In division, and most of the definition text, are Tolkien’s work. early Northern Europe these senses would easily Finally there are a small number of words which, while interchange with the sense “forest”. In OE. this later is scattered across the letter W, are sufficiently similar in form the only evidenced meaning, and the occasional for their early spellings to coincide, thus making it sensible application of the word to mountainous districts appears for someone to work on them as a group. The main members to be a translation of L. saltus (e.g. Pireni weald). Some of the group are Weald, wield, wild and wold: apart from of the senses that appear later in English seem more Weald (much of which is missing, although the word itself easily derivable from an original meaning “wilderness”, and several derivatives were at least started by Tolkien), all but this development is probably connected solely with of these lie in ranges edited not by Bradley but by his the historical deforestation of England, which has colleague C.T. Onions, who seems to have preferred produced districts of very varying character in place of rewriting a slip to attempting to annotate it with his former woodlands. corrections — thus leaving frustratingly few of Tolkien’s own WOLD (and its different forms) appears generally slips. However, discarded slips for most of the entry for wold speaking to have become obsolete during the 15th., or have survived, as has Tolkien’s etymology for wild, and I early in the 16th., century, except locally or dialectally suspect that he in fact dealt with these words in their entirety, (especially as applied as a fixed name to certain definite although to judge from the example of wold the definitions in localities). From the seventeenth century onwards its the printed text are probably mainly the work of Onions: use is largely artificial, and its senses apparently due very little of Tolkien’s definitions of wold, or even of his either to the changed character of the localities where division of it into senses, escaped alteration. The the name had become fixed, or to knowledge of the etymologies, however, are vintage Tolkien, complete with word in OE. or ME. The distinction drawn in long lists of cognates in other European languages living and quotation] 1577 (Sense 1) between the forms Wald and dead, speculations about the ulterior origins of Old Teutonic Wold, and so by implication between Northern and AT THE WORDFACE 183 WAIT. 61 WAN, etc.: Fatal, itckly, partially obscured. A lio, of a Shell Fish .. T whose Shell has the tincture of Pearl colour, almost tha had all bene lost, Throw wan tydis so stark ran white objects, etc.: Dull, lustreless. flame colour, and white, some part thereof being taken out, by the land, a 1780 Jo h n ie C o ch x v ii. in Child B a lla d s 111. 2602 H olland P lin y n. xxx. L 27 In the waxrcsof Antonie, the Indians make of it their Wamparo Pieg; which Shell is 4/x She'd ha wet her foot ith wan water. And sprinkled it the Sunne continued almost a yeere long with a pale and wan colour. 2653 P . F letcher Purple JsL xx. i, The Moon grows m staple Commodity. 2605 L o cks Further Consid. Value oer my brae. 2865 Swinburne C h a ste la rd 1. ii. 32 Do you M oney 27 Among the Indians, when it [sc. Corn) will sell ret mind at landing how the quay Looked like a blind wet wanne. andstarres flic all away, Whom T « a frr locks up in for more yards of Wampompeal, which is their Money. 1705 ?ace in waste of wind And washing of wan waves? 1865 wonted folds. 2667 M ilton P.L.X. 412 The blasted Starrs B eattie T. M. Bacon’s Rebellion (1835) *4 The Queen of Pamnnky K in g sley Hereto, xviii. Looking outside across the wan lookt wan. 2772 M in str. 1. x xv, Y e mildews wan. ..having round her head a plat of black and white wampum water for the sails which never came. *798 W ordsw. Night-piece a The sky is overcast. .H eavy and peage three inches broad in imitation o f a crown. *760 wan, all whitened by the Moon 2862 J . T homson L a d ie s o f + o. Applied to lead, or things compared to it D eath xxii. Moonless nights when stars are few and wan. T . H utchinson Hist. Col. Mass. Bay r . (ed. a) 472 Good (in colour). Obs. store of warn pom pa g to purchase some peculiar favors or *873 W. B lack P r . T h u le xxv, There were wan glimmer B ridges privileges. *875 J kyons M o n ty iv. 74 The wampumpeag of 2398 T revisa Barth. De P. R. xix. xx. (2495) 876 Leed is ings of sunshine across the sea. 2889 Sonn. lvii, the North American Indians is a case in point, as it certainly whyte by kynde though it be wan wytbout. 2477 N orton In «Bh|mn moonlight, when the white air waa I s fragrant served as jewellery. O rd. A lch . v. in Ashmole (1653) 56 Colour wan as Lead. in the wake of summer. Warn tow, W amtye, obs. ff. W amjs-tow, 2530 W hitinton V ulg. (2537) 3 His lyppes be as wanne *t* 0. Of colour : ? Pale, light. Obs. as lede. 1653 R . Sand er s Physiogn. 283 A wan Radish 2567 M a m e t G r. Fo rest 3 b, Whose interchanged greene W a r t y . colour. col xur resembleth almost the wan and yelow colour of Golde. W a m n s (wae*m»s). U.S. Also waunm s, wain- 1*2 . transf. or Jig. Sad, dismal; also awful, 5 . absol. (quasi-j3.) Wan hue, wanness, poet. m u s . fa . D u . wammes,contracted f.wambuis,a. OK. fearful, deadly, cruel, wicked, etc. (Cf. uses of 2822 Joanna B aillie Metr. Leg., Lady G- Baillie iv, She wambois, -cis : see W a m b a i s , G a m b b s o n . C f. G . dark, gloomy.) Obs. poet. saw a faint glow tinge the sickly wan. 2847 T ennyson warns, watnms, woollen jacket (M H G. wambes,-eis, . c 2400 Destr. Troy 3602 There is no worship in weping, ne P rin cess ul 9 Melissa, tinged with wan from lack of sleep. jacket worn under the armour).] In southern and in wan teres ! c 2440 York M yst. vii. 38 Me for to were fro 0 . Comb. : chiefly paiasynthetic, as wan-coloured, warkes wanne. 253s S tew art Cron. Scot. II. 407 Gratios -faced, visaged; also complementary and advb., western U.S., a warm knitted jacket resembling a God that bes all thing in erd, At his weilding to weill or jit c ard igan . wan werd. with pplcs., as wan-looking, -silvering, -worst; *805 in Thornton Awer. Gloss. 034, I got up, and found + 3 . Of an unhealthy, unwholesome colour; rarely qualifying other adjs. descriptive of colour, that my wauinus was bloody. 1854 H . H . R il e y P u d d lefo rd livid, leaden-hued. Applied esp . to wounds, to as wan-sallow, + -while. 14 (Thornton) He was attired with a red flannel * warnus 2820 W o d a r c h Introd. Cone hoi. 12 Which, .seldom exhibits 1887 Philadelphia Telegraph 6 July 6/6 His attire was the human face discoloured by disease, and to any other appearance than that of a livid or * wan-colored characterized by a long linsey * wamus 1888 E . E g g le corpses. Obs. surface. 2882 * R ita ’ My Lady Coquette x, It is a sorrowful ston G raysons xxviiL 309 This (wagon-spoke) be put into c 7°o Epinal Gloss. 576 Livida toxica: tha uuannan aetri- •wan-faced girl. 2923 Blackw. Mag. Aug. 281/1 Wan-faced the baggy part of his ‘ wamus or hunting-jacket. nan. c *375 Cursor M . 34470 (Fairf.) pi bodi is wanne as )>ou men and towsel-haired women. x88a * Ouida * M arem m a I. W am ylle, obs. form 01 W a m b l e . ware dede. 1388 Wyc u p i P et. it 34 And be hym silf bar 58 Wasted and "wan-looking folks. 287* T ennvson G areth + W a n , sb.1 Sc. Obs. 6 pi. w&xrnis, w&xmys. ourc synnes in bis bodi on a tre, that we be deed to synnes, f L yn ette 443 A man o f mien * Wan-sallow as the plant that and lyue to rijtwisnesse, bi whos wan wounde Xe ben heelid. feels itself Root-bitten b y white lichen. 2849 Lytton fPerh. a subst. use of W a h a . l But cf. W b n .] A 1398 T revisa Barth. De P. R. x v ii. xxxviii. (1495) 625 K . A r th u r v. i,* Wan-silvering through the bosh, ibe cresset dark or livid mark produced by a blow ; a bruise. Powder o f cornyn wel medlyd wyth wexe dooth away wanne shone O’er the arch seer. 1508 D unbar F it t in g 10 1 *Wan 1533 B ellenden L iv y (S.T.S.) I. 167 He. .had done greie colour that comyth of smytynge. Ib id . xix. xxi. 876 Wanne wisaged widdefow, out o f tby wit gane wykL c 2530 Jn d ic . vassalege baitb for J>e honoure & defence of |>e ciete, as colour betokenyth angwysshe and passion of the hertc whyche U rin e s ur. xix. 62 And some Auctouxs saye that *wan- weil apperit be sindn wannys & markix in his face and vther drawyth inwmrde the hete o f blood. 2483 Cath. Angl. 408/1 whyte colour in vryn. .sbeweth begynnyng of digestyon. partis of bis body. 1560 R olland Seven Sages 59 The W ann.., centos, ceruteus, pallidus, Hnidus. 25.. D unbar 2609 W. B arlow A nrw. Nameless Cath. 242 T o haue her Jenicht.. fand his sone witbouttin wan or wound. 1567 C uds Poem s Ixxxvi. 3$ Thy sone Jhesu, with his woundis wan, painting wiped from her riueld browea and •van-worn f Godlie Ballads (S.T.S.) 33 He it is, quhilk geuis wan and Ouhilk deinjeit him for our trespass to de. 1536 Pilgr. Per/. cheeks. wound, And suddanlie be will mak hail! and sound, (W. de W. 1531) 257 And those moost beautyful] & fayre W a n (wpn), v . Inflected wanned, wanning. f W a n , sb* Obs. Also 7 w anne, 8-9 erron. cbekes, all Woo & wanne, with buffettes & beatynges. c 1560 A. Scott Poems xxxiiL 26 Evill lyfe, and laneour but releif Also 3 w onne. £OE. wannian, f. Wah aJ] a . (n o w V a n x w and. [? Du. wanne wan) • see A1] Off woundis wan. 1570 L evins M a n ip. 20/21 Wan.. . liu id u s. + L intr. To become dark, discoloured, or livid. L A winnowing fan: -» V a n sb J I . 1615 Sylvester tr. H. Smith's Micro-cosm. 72 The Nobler rxooo Verve Hi M S. 23 b/7 ponne wannaS be &doxaj>; 16x5 C hatman O dyss. x i. 163 W hat dost thou with that states with Enuy wan, Without end are torne and tost 2655 oSre hwile he bI3 blzec & seniwe. c 2230 H a lt M e id . 3s wanne [Gr. a6r\py\Aotyor, winnowing fan], vpon thy necke? Culpepper etc. R ivertu s ix. ix. 373 I f . . the wan and deadly Pine ehnen schulen doskin & under pon wonnen. a 2400-50 2 . The sail of a windmill: =* V a n s b .1 5. color of the Face., he restored, there is hope of Health. W a rs A le x . 414a pe son wadis, pe werd_ wannes at a wap Commonly spelt w a n d , the word being wrongly supposed 4 . Pallid, faded, sickly; unusually or un & pe wed ire gtoumes. Ib id . 4627 Quen it [gold] walows & to be a corruption of W and sb. healthily pale. Most frequently applied to the wannes all oure thestres, Jet ere we toghid to & fra bo 1766 A n n . R eg. 77 The sails or wands of the mill. .struck turnyng of eldris. her so violently on the head, as to fracture her skull. 1835 human face (or to things with conscious metaphor from this application). 2 . To grow pale, poet. B rock e t t N . C. Gloss., Wan, a corruption o f wand. * & y a rd 258a S tan yh u rst A S n eis iv . (Arb.) 218 A 1 her visage waning man.*— * A m ill-w a n .’ 1846 M. A. R ichardson B o rd erer's 4x300 C urso r M . 4547 For lene be was, and wan b« face. with murder aproching [L. pallida morte futura\. 2599 Table-bk. V. 97 The wands of the..w ind m ill..w ere forced Ib id. 34471. P* face es wan as ros vnrede. a 13*0 in Wright M a r s t o n A n t . Figure 9: OED slips, headword Wandering, verso of quotation for wandering Jew. (Reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library) Midland or Southern usage, is not consistently borne course of his struggle with the derivation of walrus Tolkien out by the rest of the material.8 discovered the etymology of the obscure word rossome This brings us to the end of Tolkien’s work on those “redness”. He wrote a slip for the Supplement file suggesting fascicles of the OED on which he was directly engaged; but that the published etymology “Obscure” be replaced by there is also a significant body of work left by him a. early mod. G. roseme OHG. rosamo rubor, lentigo, specifically for use in revising, expanding and updating the MHG. roseme. (See Diefenbach s.v. Lentigo) Dictionary, the necessity of which had long been recognised. which Bradley subsequently approved and wrote in as Materials for the preparation of a Supplement had been marginalia, and which was incorporated in the corrected re accumulating for some time; and when this supplementary issue of 1933 (although drastically shortened to “G. volume was published in 1933, the OED was re-issued in f roseme", to allow it to be added to the entry without twelve volumes (it had until then only been available in the causing it to spill over onto a new line). Similarly, his work form of fascicles) which incorporated a number of minor on the wild/wold group brought to light some errors and corrections and revisions. Some material intended for the omissions, such as the interpretation of one Middle English Supplement was written on slips and filed; much more was passage as evidence for a supposed compound noun rood- written into the margins of the various working copies of the wold whereas it was in fact an instance of a variant form of Dictionary which the lexicographers consulted, and it is here the past tense of quell “to kill”, and the absence of cross- that, thanks once again to Tolkien’s highly distinctive references to wold under its variant spellings. He would also handwriting, I have been able to identify a number of his make comments on the etymologies of (mainly) Germanic suggestions. words, often adducing further evidence in support of Often work on a word towards the end of the alphabet etymological hypotheses described by the OED as unlikely; would cast light on words nearer the beginning, which had and occasionally he would make observations on modem already been dealt with in print. Thus, for example, in the English, as in his suggestions for updating the definition of 8 In fact Tolkien was later able to have his say about the interrelatedness of these words: in The Year’s Work in English Studies for 1924, the chapter on “Philology: General Works” (which Tolkien compiled for three years after moving to Leeds) includes a review of the newly- published OED fascicle Whisking-Wilfulness in which, as well as noting one or two errors and discussing the word whole at some length, Tolkien complains that in the etymology of wild “the connexion with *walpus {wold, weald, forest) is rejected” (Tolkien, 1926, p. 48) — a connection which his own earlier draft etymologies had asserted. AT THE WORDFACE 185 brigade (“now a subdivision (usually a 3rd or 4th part) of a of the materials assembled for the task of revision have yet to ‘division’, and consisting of 3-6 battalions” - obviously be taken into account. In consequence, these handwritten based on his own recent experiences), and his observation notes by Tolkien may be made use of well into the next that, in addition to the entry for the Middle English century, as work proceeds toward the third edition of the diminutive -kin, the suffix -kins should be included because OED. of its modern colloquial use “in endearing forms of address” (an entry along these lines did indeed appear in the 1933 Conclusion Supplement). But the vast majority of Tolkien’s marginal annotations The significance of Tolkien’s work on the OED at the originate in the work he did on a number of fourteenth- beginning of his academic career is not easy to assess. His century texts for Kenneth Sisam during the spring of 1920. publications in the years immediately following 1920 include The publication of “Sisam’s 14th Cent[ur]y reader” (as it much in terms of philology that follows on directly from his appears in the OUP ledger) entailed the careful examination work with Henry Bradley and Kenneth Sisam,9 and his own of many important texts of the period, which are excerpted or statements indicate the value he himself placed on what he given in their entirety in the book: in the course of this learnt while at work on the Dictionary. It is perhaps scrutiny Tolkien came across several dozen antedatings sufficient to say that without such an early and extensive (instances of particular words being used earlier than their opportunity to nurture his native fascination with words as first date as given in the OED). So, for example, whereas in individuals to be studied, the course of his subsequent the OED the verb hem “to edge or border (a garment or academic career might have been very different. Certainly cloth); to decorate with a border, fringe, or the like” is there are clear early signs of familiar tendencies in Tolkien’s recorded no earlier than 1440, Tolkien noted the phrase “fie approach to writing of any kind: repeated and increasingly gurdel j^at is golde-hemmed” in Sir Gawain and the Green hasty re-drafting, a desire to say more than practical Knight, which constitutes an antedating of at least forty constraints allow, and an acute sensitivity to the impact years: in a few cases words were antedated by over a words can have in addition to their apparent meanings. century. I have not attempted to trace in detail the influence of Perhaps surprisingly, most of these marginalia have not Tolkien’s lexicography on the vocabulary he used in his been acted on: thus the second edition (1989) of the OED creative writing, but I would suggest that such research has contains entries for brigade and hem which are unchanged as the potential to cast considerable light on his creative far as Tolkien’s comments are concerned. The explanation of processes. To take an obvious example, his use of the word this lies in the two decades following the publication of the wold - a fairly unusual word in modem English - to denote 1933 Supplement, during which OUP disbanded the OED the grassy uplands of Rohan becomes more significant when team and work on maintaining the Dictionary ceased we know how thoroughly he studied and puzzled over its completely. Operations recommenced in 1957 with the origins and meanings. His writings of the 1920s, in particular appointment of Robert Burchfield to oversee the expansion the fragmentary Lay of the Fall of Gondolin and the various of the 1933 Supplement into what eventually became four alliterative poems of that period, may contain evidence that volumes, later to be combined with the original twelve other words assigned to him by Bradley continued to loom together with about 5000 new entries to form the twenty- large in his vocabulary. I hope that by mapping out the extent volume second edition of 1989; but this expanded edition is of his work on the OED I have made available the raw not a comprehensive revision of the original work, and many materials on which such further research may be conducted. Appendix: Entries in the OED worked on by Tolkien (Wag(g)el) Waggle sb., v.; Waggly Wain sb. Waist; Waistband, Waist-cloth, Waistcoat, Waistcoated, Waistcoateer, Waist-rail, Waist-tree; Waisted, Waister, Waistless Wait-a-bit Waiter; Waitership Waiting sb., a.; Waiting-maid, Waiting-man, Waiting-room, Waiting-woman Waitress Wake sb., v.; Wake-robin, Wake-wort Waldend Wallop sb., v.; Walloper, Walloping sb., a. Walm sb., v.; Walming Walnut 9 Indeed, with the exception of the edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1925), which he prepared with E.V. Gordon, all of his scholarly output up to 1932 can be described as philological: see Hammond, 1993. 186 J. R. R. TOLKIEN CENTENARY CONFERENCE Walrus Wampum (?Wampumpeag?) Wan sb., a., v. Wander sb., v.; Wanderable, Wandered, Wanderer, Wandering sb., a., Wanderment; Wander-year Wandreth Wane sb., a., v. Want sb., v; Want-louse Wariangle Warlock sb., v.; Warlockry Warm a. (?Wasp, Water?) Weald; Wealden, Wealding (?Wick?) Wield Wild (?Winter?) Wold References: Carpenter, Humphrey. 1977. J.R.R. Tolkien: a biography. London: George Allen and Unwin. Dutton, M.L. 1987. “Lexicography and popular history: readers and their slips for the New English Dictionary” in Dictionaries, 9 (1987), pp. 196-210. Hammond, Wayne G. 1993. J.R.R. Tolkien: a descriptive bibliography. Winchester: St Paul’s Bibliographies. Leeds University English School Association. 1923. A Northern Venture. Leeds: At the Swan Press. Murray, K.M.E. 1977. Caught in the web of words: James A.H. Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sisam, K. (ed.). 1921. Fourteenth century verse and prose. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tolkien, J.R.R. 1922. A Middle English vocabulary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tolkien, J.R.R. 1923. “Henry Bradley, 3 Dec., 1845-23 May, 1923” in Bulletin of the Modern Humanities Research Association, no. 20 (October 1923), pp. 4-5. Tolkien, J.R.R. 1926. “Philology: General Works” in The Year's Work in English Studies for 1924 (1926), pp. 26-65. Tolkien, J.R.R. 1984. The Book of Lost Tales, part two, ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin. Tolkien, J.R.R. 1992. Sauron Defeated, ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: HarperCollins. Tolkien, J.R.R. and Gordon, E.V. (eds.). 1925. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Oxford: Oxford University Press.