Explanation of the word hobbitRoman Rauschfirst presented: Omentielva Lempea, Aug. 10th 2013, Helsinki, Finland |
[...] and there in rows stood great jars and vessels filled with a wealth that could not be guessed. The Hobbit, chapter XII: Inside Information
This work was first published in Arda Philology 5 (2015). The given online version slightly differs from the original, as new entries have been added to the kup/korb lists in chapter 4 (and a few have been added to the Elvish list in chapter 5), so that the statistics are updated as well. The lists can also be accessed independently at http://sindanoorie.net/kup/kup.html with a convenient search function. I am still extending them and appreciate any additional input.
The story of how the word hobbit came about is well-known: While correcting examination papers, Tolkien came across a blank page and spontaneously wrote on it “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”. In the introduction to The History of the Hobbit, its author John Rateliff cites various accounts of this event and presents evidence pointing to the summer of 1930 as the date of creation.
Already at the publication of The Hobbit, several speculations arose about a possible ‘explanation’ of this word, attempts to find out what Tolkien might have been influenced by when he invented it. They are discussed in detail in the History of the Hobbit. Since they have nothing in common with the one I have to offer, I just give a quick summary for the sake of completeness:
Now of course, hobbit does not need an ‘explanation’ any more than any of the numerous other words Tolkien has created, we are dealing with a language-inventor after all. But it turns out that it just might have one, in the sense that the word was not created completely arbitrarily. My approach will be a sound-symbolic rather than a philological one, in a similar vein to what has been done before by Stan McDaniel [3]. I was not aware of his work until I was finished with mine, so it would seem that we came to similar conclusions independently.
In 1926, a paper was published by the French linguist Marcel Cohen with the title “Sur un nom d’un contenant à entrelacs dans le monde Méditerrannéen” (‘About a name of a wickerwork container in the Mediterranean world’) [1]. According to his own account, he was looking through Dillmann’s Ethiopian dictionary where he stumbled upon the Ge’ez word karabo translated by the similar-sounding Latin corbis ‘basket’ and had the idea that this similarity might not be an accident. Investigating further, he found a huge amount of words denoting a container – often specifically a woven basket, other times a vessel of some other kind – in many languages across the Mediterranean, conforming to the same shape:
The variant without a liquid is represented by the Latin word cuppa ‘cup’, the variant with a liquid by Latin corbis ‘basket’. To be able to refer to this shape, I therefore call the former variant kup, the latter korb.
Cohen’s theory is that a word of this shape has been acting as a mot-bouchon (literally a ‘floater-word’; in English the German term Wanderwort is normally used), i.e. it has been roaming the Mediterranean region, being loaned back and forth across multiple languages. He speculates that it might hail from a pre-Indo-European language from the region, with the original sense of ‘wicker’, ‘reed’, ‘stipa’ or any other material originally used in the weaving of baskets. From ‘basket’ semantic shifts lead to more general ‘vessel’, ‘cage’ and the like, as well as words denoting a particular measure of volume.
Cohen’s collection of words is of an impressive size. It has to be large in order to exclude the possibility of random similarities. In order to judge that and appreciate the scope of the prevalence of this fascinating shape, I give most of Cohen’s data below. I have excluded only a few words, some that have to do with weaving only (and no vessels, the reasons will become clear later) and some which I could not corroborate:
language gloss translation 1 Akk. kapru(m) cup; table (for eating) 2 Akk. karpu(m), karpatu(m) jar, vessel (which may be of a fragile material) 3 Akk. quppu(m) chest, box, cage 4 Amh. gabar pan for frying pancakes 5 Amh. gabatā 1. wooden plate or tablet 2. wicker table 6 Amh. gabatā measure of grain 7 Amh. gub a kind of woven disc 8 Amh. karabo, kabaro drum 9 Amh. qafo beehive 10 Ar. garafa to scoop with a hollow utensil 11 Ar. gārəb a kind of ship with rudders 12 Ar. ǧarīb measure of grain for sowing 13 Ar. girāf vessel, measure 14 Ar. gurfa hollow of the hand full of water; measure of grain 15 Ar. guruf small cup 16 Ar. kabar drum 17 Ar. kabl foot shackles 18 Ar. kalb a red stripe which one sews between two strips of hide, making up a purse 19 Ar. kfra bowl out of a netted fabric from date trees 20 Ar. kibl foot shackles 21 Ar. kiwāra beehive 22 Ar. kūb big cup, bowl 23 Ar. kurufa, qurufa straw hat 24 Ar. kuwāra, kuwwāra beehive 25 Ar. kwāfri chest-maker 26 Ar. qafʿa a type of round basket without handles out of palm leaves 27 Ar. qafaṣ 1. cage 2. shovel for wheat 3. a type of basket 4. stall 5. grid 6. measure of capacity 28 Ar. qaffūra big basket 29 Ar. qafir beehive, tray for keeping dates in 30 Ar. qafiz measure of dry things, measure in surveying 31 Ar. qafūr sheath of the palm tree blossoms 32 Ar. qalīf basket for the transport of dates 33 Ar. qārəb a kind of ship with rudders 34 Ar. qirba goatskin flask 35 Ar. quffa bag of palm leaves 36 Aram. kawęręt beehive 37 Aram. kɘbʰȧsa 1. cluster of grapes 2. testicles 38 Aram. kūbbȧsa 1. cluster of grapes 2. testicles 39 Aram. kubʰa tub 40 Aram. qapʰsa bottle, cage, basket 41 Aram. qəbōṭīn box, chest 42 Aram. qībōta box, chest 43 Aram. qubbəta water reservoir; tent 44 Basque copalet pouch with water (for a whetstone) 45 Basque gopor bowl 46 Basque kupel tub 47 Basque khoban beehive 48 Basque khopor cup 49 Basque kofoi(n), kofan beehive 50 Basque kopa pouch with water (for a whetstone) 51 Basque kopor bowl, basin 52 Basque kupel tub 53 Beja guffa, gūfa cup 54 Beja gŭraf drinking glass 55 Beja kabūr drum 56 Beja kafas closed basket, cage 57 Beja kŭrāfa drinking glass 58 Berber (a)gərrabu a kind of ship 59 Berber akäfu basket out of paper 60 Berber akufi jar for cereal 61 Berber t-guff-ət big carrycot out of halfah grass 62 Berber þaqᵊfif-þ big carrycot out of halfah grass 63 Bagrimi al-āgawa straw hat 64 Bagrimi al-gapa big sieve 65 Bulg. кораб ship 66 Bilen kalambura drum 67 Bilen qaffo big vessel out of palm tree, used for storage 68 Chamir kirbra drum 69 Chamir qefa elongated basket, beehive 70 OCS koliba hut, cabin 71 Cop. kabi jar, measure 72 Cop. kebi jar, measure 73 M.Egy. kb jar, measure 74 M.Egy. qby jar, measure 75 Fr. cabane hut, cabin 76 Fr. cabas woven bag for groceries 77 Fr. cabine booth, cubicle 78 Fr. carabe withy boat covered in hides; a kind of litter; caravel 79 Fr. carafe carafe 80 Fr. coffin 1. small basket, basket for fruit 2. pouch with water (for a whetstone) 3. coffin 81 Fr. coffre chest 82 Fr. corvette corvette (small warship) 83 Fr. couffe a type of basket 84 Fr. gobelet goblet 85 Fula gafakke woven feedbag (for horses) 86 Ger. Koben shed, sty 87 Ger. Korb basket 88 Geez gabatā plate, frying pan 89 Geez gərāb goatskin flask, amphora (?) 90 Geez kabalo handle, ring 91 Geez kafar chest, basket 92 Geez karabo basket 93 Geez qafo chest, basket, cage, beehive 94 Geez qirāb case, sheath 95 Ir. corb coach 96 Gr. κάβος measure of wheat 97 Gr. κάλπη pitcher, vessel for drinking; cinerary urn 98 Gr. κάλπις pitcher, vessel for drinking; cinerary urn 99 Gr. καλύβη hut, cabin 100 Gr. καπᾱνη 1. manger (crib for the food of cattle) 2. chariot, basket of a chariot 101 Gr. κάπη manger (crib for the food of cattle) 102 Gr. καράβιον vessel, ship 103 Gr. κάραβος big ship 104 Gr. κίβισις pouch, wallet 105 Gr. κιβωτός, κιβώτιον box, chest, bottle 106 Gr. κλωβóς birdcage 107 Gr. κόφινος basket; measure of volume 108 Gr. κύμβη 1. vessel, cup, bowl 2. small boat 109 Gr. κύμβος cup 110 Gr. κύπη hole 111 Gr. κύπελλον big-bellied drinking vessel, beaker, goblet, cup 112 Gr. κύπελλον vessel for drinking, for milking 113 Gr. κύπρος measure of capacity for cereal 114 Gr. κυψέλη box, chest; cell; hollow of the ear 115 Gr. κύμβαλον cymbal 116 Hausa gafakka leather bag 117 Hausa gurunfa straw hat 118 A.Heb. gȧrȧpʰ vessel 119 A.Heb. g-pʰ-l vessel for drinking 120 A.Heb. kbsa pouch, bag, wallet 121 A.Heb. kəbʰȧra sieve 122 A.Heb. kəlūbʰ, kəlībʰa basket for grapes 123 A.Heb. kilubi nest 124 A.Heb. kōmer pile of fruits made overripe 125 A.Heb. qūpʰa tub 126 A.Heb. quppa vessel, basket 127 Heb. kębʰęl foot shackles 128 Heb. kəlūbʰ basket, cage 129 Heb. kəpʰōr metal cup 130 Heb. kpʰipʰa basket out of palm leaves 131 Heb. qab measure of capacity for non-liquids 132 It. cófano chest 133 It. coffa crow’s nest (on a ship’s mast), little basket 134 Kabyle þaḫabiþ jar 135 Kafa kambo drum 136 Kunama kubula drum 137 Lat. calpar vessel for wine 138 Lat. capanna hut, cabin 139 Lat. capis, capedo bowl with a handle 140 Lat. capsa vessel, chest 141 Lat. capsula small bottle 142 Lat. capsus wagon-body, cage for large animals 143 Lat. capula bowl with a handle 144 Lat. capulus coffin 145 Lat. carabus coracle 146 Lat. cavea cage, fence, beehive 147 Lat. copa small boat 148 Lat. copelletus small cup 149 Lat. copellus measure of volume 150 Lat. cophinus basket 151 Lat. coppana small boat 152 Lat. coppanus measure of grain 153 Lat. corbis basket 154 Lat. corbīta transport vessel 155 Lat. cumera, cumerus basket out of rush; clay vessel to store grain 156 Lat. cūpa cask, tub, barrel 157 Lat. cuppa cup 158 Lat. gabata a kind of dish, plate 159 Mac. kanavaza vessel 160 Mandinka gabā woven straw hat 161 Mandinka gafa woven feedbag (for horses) 162 N.Aram. kūlb jar 163 Oromo gūbo woven vessel 164 Oromo hubo pot 165 O.Turk. kövrūg big trunk 166 Pers. kawār basket 167 Pers. kuwār(a) basket 168 Pers. qafes cage, palanquin 169 Pers. qar(r)āba bottle, vessel out of glass 170 Pol. korab basket 171 Prov. coufo a type of basket 172 Rif. aq(ə)bbuz chest for cereal 173 Rif. aqrab bag woven out of palm tree sprouts 174 Rif. þ-aqrab-þ crib 175 Rom. coliba hut, cabin 176 Rus. корабль ship 177 Sans. kapāla cup, jar, dish 178 Sans. kapāla skull, cranium, skull-bone 179 Sans. karparas cup, shard 180 Sans. karparas skull 181 Saho-Afar kabaro little drum 182 Somali gorof woven vessel 183 Songhay gafa woven feedbag (for horses) 184 Sp. cafiz, cahiz measure of capacity defined by the grain load on a mule with which one can inseminate an area 185 Sp. cuévano 1. large basket for grapes 2. beehive 186 Saho kabalō travel bag 187 Saho qafo large vessel out of palm tree, used for storage; beehive 188 Saho qōb waterproof basket 189 Syriac kabʰla shackles 190 Syriac kȧpʰarta drinking vessel made out of woven and tarred palm leaves 191 Syriac kulbȧša basket for grapes 192 Syriac qarbīn ship 193 Tigrinya gabatā measure of grain 194 Tigrinya gabbarā very large vessel made of a tree trunk; trough to make pastry 195 Tigrinya kafar woven withy basket 196 Tigrinya käläbo pot 197 Tigrinya kāribbo goatskin flask stitched into a form of a bottle 198 Tigrinya qʷafo chest, basket, cage, beehive 199 Tuareg ăgrəbbən small spherical vessel for butter made out of leather 200 Tuareg akabar mortar without legs 201 Tuareg takəbat very small can with a lid 202 Turk. kabrān measure of volume 203 Turk. küp jar 204 Turk. qāliba hut, cabin 205 Turk. qavanoz vessel 206 Turk. qobur holster, case 207 Turk. qova bucket 208 Turk. qub case, envelope
Having brought Cohen’s data in digital form, it is possible to generate some statistics about sound distributions. To simplify things across different phonologies, I put similar sounds in groups: For the first consonant, all voiceless stops are represented by K, voiced by G and voiceless fricatives by H. For the vowel, I use the obvious notation A, E, I, O, U for the five common vowels, Y for [y] and empty curly brackets in the case of a schwa, an unknown vowel (as in Middle Egyptian) or no vowel at all. For the second consonant, the possibilities are P, B, F, V, M and MP/MB for a nasalized cluster. This gives the following distribution (values below 3% are suppressed):
If the words chosen have no correlation with their phonetic shape at all, one would expect the sound frequencies to follow their respective distributions among the languages. For example, the first sound was restricted to a velar, but no further, so that the above values would match how common K is compared to G or H. And indeed, the relative commonness of F as the second consonant, for example, seems to be related to a bias of the data towards Semitic and its commonness in Arabic (where [p] > [f]). If there is a correlation, one should see a deviation. However, this is obviously difficult to show in practice, since the rank-frequencies for the given languages are unknown. Still, one notices that the vowels E and I appear rather rarely, clearly way below their typical rank-frequencies across languages. I shall come to this point further below.
If one looks further still, Cohen’s theory cannot be the whole story, as argued by Anatoly Liberman in a 2010 paper titled “Iconicity and etymology”. As an illustrative example, he considers the English word cob which is attested in the following meanings in the Oxford English Dictionary [18], with the year of first attestation:
The word apparently shows quite a bit of semantic spread, but the meanings seem to be centered around the ideas of ‘lump, small roundish piece’, ‘head, bulb, clove’, ‘stoutness’ (by extension ‘stout man, leader’) and ‘a kind of animal’. Such a semantic spread, along with its late (i.e., long past the Proto-Indo-European stage) appearance strongly suggests one thing: The English word ‘cob’ is sound-symbolic, and as such, it has simply been reinvented rather than taken as a loan or continued from the ancestor language.
And it is far from being alone, consider for example the following attested meanings of the Hungarian word gamó [7]:
Here, the meanings could be grouped under ‘swelling’ or ‘crookedness’, the common denominator with cob being an idea of curvature or convexity.
A joining of the two semantic fields of ‘vessel’ and ‘convex shape’ is soon found by noticing that German Kolben ‘club, the thick end of a club’ underwent a change to ‘flask’ (which can be considered club-shaped), or that Ancient Greek κύμβη on the one hand appears with the meaning ‘hollow of a vessel, drinking cup, bowl; boat’, but also as ‘head’ and ‘knapsack, wallet’. The latter, in particular, can be considered both as a kind of container and as a kind of lump at the same time.
Words with this idea also appear far from the Mediterranean region, as e.g. Korean kopta ‘be winding’, kwupta ‘be bent’ or Japanese kobu ‘bump, lump, protuberance, swelling’. This does not neglect the cross-loaning in the Mediterranean region discussed by Cohen, of course, but some instances should be perhaps rethought, especially when they do no not match up as etymologists would like them to. Liberman mentions Sanskrit kapalam ‘cup, skull’ and Greek κύβος ‘cube’ which are thought of as cognates despite the mismatch of a voiceless and voiced sound. A similar mismatch is found in Greek χαμός beside χαβός ‘curved’ or Latin globus and glomus ‘globe, ball-shaped mass’.
A common pattern with such words that I have observed in etymological dictionaries, is then that the frustrated etymologist will either give up, tentatively suggest a Wanderwort, a loan, or propose some kind of substate effect. However, at one point the German etymologist Friedrich Kluge admits to a sound-symbolic origin when discussing the etymology of Kropf, writing “apparently a sound-symbolic formation with a phonetic shape common to such meanings” [14] (my translation).
Another way to cope with the difficulties has often been to cut up the words even further, for instance postulating Proto-Indo-European *keu- ‘bend, curve’ with possible extensions *keu-p- or *keu-b-. It appears highly doubtful, however, that languages really work in this way – clearly, English cob was not created by extension of a root *ko-. But while the exact consonant is a big deal for etymology, it is much less so for sound symbolism. Its simpler form is onomatopoeia where beep is just a louder peep and a lot of leeway is natural.
Having become slightly obsessed with the matter, I set out to find as many kup/korb shapes as possible which would confirm to the above ideas. To classify them, I devised the following semantic subdivisons:
Since Cohen was focused on vessel-words, simply mixing my list into his would create a bias towards vessel. Therefore, I keep all the words in my list distinct from Cohen’s, unless there are reasons to repeat them – like words appearing here in different semantic fields.
Apart from the glosses and their translations, I also list the semantic field I counted them in, as well as their origin, if such was suggested in an etymological dictionary. The sources are given in the last column. I do not provide sources for words from common languages which can be looked up easily in a number of dictionaries.
lang. gloss translation sem. orig. ref. 1 abe kokkw- humpy, in mounds swelling [29] 2 abe kwalagw- concave cavity [29] 3 abe kwelegw- roll, twist, turn on an axis rotation [29] 4 Akk. gamlu bent stick (as projectile), throwing stick hook [8] 5 Akk. kamkammatu 1. metal ring ring [8] 6 Akk. kamkammatu 2. round moon, full moon lump [8] 7 Akk. kapālu(m) to roll up, wind up, intertwine each other (of snakes, birds etc.) bending [8] 8 Akk. kapāpu to curve, bow bending [8] 9 Akk. kapāṣu to bend back, distort (of part of body, snake, horn of moon, part of liver) bending [8] 10 Akk. kappultum wrapping (as purpose of textile) bending [8] 11 Akk. karmu(m) heap, mound lump [8] 12 Akk. kiplu twisting, twine bending [8] 13 Akk. kippatu(m) circle, hoop, ring ring [8] 14 Akk. kippatu(m) tendril, twining stem of vine bending [8] 15 Akk. kippatu(m) handle, grip of vessel, musical instrument hook [8] 16 Akk. kippu(m) loop, trap ring [8] 17 Akk. kirbānu lump (of earth) lump [20] 18 Akk. kuppu cistern, water source vessel [8] 19 Akk. kuppupu(m) very bent bending [8] 20 Akk. kupputtu measuring vessel vessel [8] 21 Akk. kupputu conglomerated (of parts of liver) lump [8] 22 Akk. qablu(m) 1. hips, waist 2. belt, girdle ring [8] 23 Akk. qabru(m) grave, tomb cavity [8] 24 Akk. qabūtu bowl vessel [8] 25 Akk. qebēru(m) 1. bury 2. wrap up (as though for burial) 3. be rolled up, convoluted (?) bending [8] 26 OE crump, crumb crooked bending [13] 27 Ar. ġarrāfa noria (wheel-like machine for lifting water) ring 28 Ar. qubba dome dome 29 Av. kamarā girdle, belt ring [12] 30 Basque gurpil wheel ring 31 Basque harpe cave, cavern, grotto cavity [24] 32 Basque kabi nest vessel Lat. cavea [24] 33 Basque koba cave, cavern cavity 34 Basque kobazulo cave, cavern cavity 35 Basque kopeta forehead swelling 36 Basque kopor bowl, basin vessel [24] 37 Basque kuma cradle vessel Lat. cūna [24] 38 Basque kume cub lump 39 Bulg. коруба tree hollow cavity 40 Chag. koburčak box vessel [26] 41 Chag. kopur vessel vessel [26] 42 Welsh copa top, summit, head head 43 Welsh cwm valley cavity 44 Dutch klamp heap lump [13] 45 Dutch klamp clamp hook O.Dut. *clampe [13] 46 Dutch koper trading vessel vessel [13] 47 Eng. calabash pumpkin-shaped vessel vessel Sp. calabaza 48 Eng. calf calf, young of a cow, etc. cub PIE *gʷelbʰ-/*gʷolbʰ- [13] 49 Eng. clamp heap lump [13] 50 Eng. clamp clamp, device for fastening hook O.Dut. *clampe [13] 51 Eng. cob round object, stone of a fruit, testicle, roundish heap, lump, haystack, knot of hair, lump of coal, dumpling lump [18] 52 Eng. cob head of a herring, seeding head of wheat, clover etc. head [18] 53 Eng. cob great man, big man, leading man, wealthy man, miser, huge, lumpish person swelling [18] 54 Eng. cobble cobble, rounded stone lump Eng. cob [13] 55 Eng. coble a kind of fishing boat vessel Lat. caupulus [13] 56 Eng. coif cap, headdress headgear O.Fr. coiffe [13] 57 Eng. coop basket vessel Lat. cūpa [13] 58 Eng. cower crouch, squat, kneel (with a rounded back) bending MLG kūren [13] 59 Eng. cramp bent piece of iron bending M.Du. crampe, cramp [13] 60 Eng. creep move the body near or along the ground as a reptile or insect doe bending 61 Eng. crib 1. bed for a baby 2. box with food for farm animals vessel 62 Eng. crimp to wrinkle bending 63 Eng. cripple lame or partly disabled person or animal; original sense ’bent, twisted’ bending [13] 64 Eng. crumple to curl up, become wrinkled or bent bending OE crump, crumb [13] 65 Eng. cub the young of the fox, bear, lion, tiger etc. cub ON kobbi [13] 66 Eng. gaff fishing hook hook M.Fr. gaffe [13] 67 Eng. gob lump of slimy substance lump O.Fr. gobe [13] 68 Eng. gobbet piece of flesh, lump of food (archaic) lump O.Fr. gobet [13] 69 Eng. grave grave, tomb cavity PIE *grebʰ-/*grobʰ- [13] 70 Eng. groove furrow, trench, channel cavity PIE *grebʰ-/*grobʰ- [13] 71 Eng. hamper large basket vessel O.Fr. hanapier [13] 72 Eng. hanaper case for holding documents vessel O.Fr. hanapier [13] 73 Eng. heap large, disordered pile of things lump PIE *keu-p- [13] 74 Eng. hive nest for bees lump 75 Eng. hobby small horse cub 76 Eng. hoop circular band ring 77 ME cawell fish basket vessel [16] 78 Est. kolp skull head 79 Est. kübar hat headgear 80 Fin. huppu hoof, cowl headgear 81 Fin. kaivaa to dig, excavate cavity 82 Fin. kimpale slab, chunk, clod, lump, large irregular piece lump 83 Fin. klimppi gob, clump, clot lump 84 Fin. kolpakko tankard, jug vessel Rus. колпак 85 Fin. kuhmu knot, swelling swelling 86 Fin. kumara bent, bowed bending 87 Fin. kuoppa hole, pit cavity 88 Fin. kyhmy swelling, protuberance swelling 89 Fin. kypärä helmet headgear 90 Fr. coiffe headdress, cap headgear Lat. cofia (cofea) [13] 91 Fr. couffe carrycot vessel 92 Fr. couffin carrycot vessel 93 Fr. coupe cup vessel Lat. cuppa 94 Fr. courber to bend bending 95 Fr. cuve vat vessel Lat. cūpa 96 Fr. gobe fattening ball (for poultry), poisoned ball (for a dog) lump O.Fr. gobe [13] 97 M.Fr. gaffe long pole with an attached fishhook hook [10] 98 O.Fr. gobe mouthful, lump lump [13] 99 O.Fr. hanap goblet vessel Frank. *hnap [13] 100 O.Fr. hanapier basket for holding a goblet vessel O.Fr. hanap [13] 101 N.Fr. klumerig plump, crude lump [22] 102 N.Fr. Klump dumpling lump [22] 103 Geo. gaberili swollen swelling 104 Geo. gumbati dome dome 105 Geo. kamari girdle, belt ring 106 Geo. khbo calf cub 107 Ger. Graben ditch cavity PIE *gʰrebʰ- [14] 108 Ger. Hamen 1. horse collar, 2. fishing hook hook Pol. chomąto 109 Ger. Haupt head (arch.) head PIE *kapwet-/kaput- [14, 25] 110 Ger. Hüfte hip bending PIE *keu- [14] 111 Ger. Humpen tankard vessel 112 Ger. Kalb calf cub PIE *gʷelbʰ-/*gʷolbʰ- [13] 113 Ger. Kalebasse pumpkin-shaped vessel vessel Sp. calabaza 114 Ger. kauern crouch, squat, kneel (with a rounded back) bending MLG kūren [13] 115 Ger. Kerbe dent, groove cavity 116 Ger. Kiepe dosser, pannier (high basket carried on the back) vessel 117 Ger. Kiepe straw hat, hood headgear 118 Ger. Knospe bud swelling 119 Ger. Knubbe bud, bulge, swelling swelling 120 Ger. Kolben various club-like or cylindric objects: corncob, spadix, butt of a rifle, club or mace proper; piston lump 121 Ger. Kolben laboratory flask vessel 122 Ger. Kopf head head Lat. cuppa [14] 123 Ger. Korb basket vessel Lat. corbis [14] 124 Ger. Kropf crop, craw (outwards expanded portion of the alimentary tract in birds) swelling P.Germ. *kruppa- [14] 125 Ger. krumm crooked bending 126 Ger. Kruppe croup (anterior of horse) swelling 127 Ger. Kübel tub, bucket vessel Lat. cūpella [14] 128 Ger. Kufe vat, tub (especially for transporting salt) vessel Lat. cūpa [14] 129 Ger. Kummet horse collar hook 130 Ger. Kuppel dome dome It. cupola [14] 131 Ger. Kürbe dosser, pannier (high basket carried on the back) (Bavarian dialect) vessel 132 Ger. Kurbel crank, winder rotation Lat. curvus [14] 133 Ir. cabhuil conical basket for catching fish vessel ME cawell [16] 134 P.Germ. hulmaz small island, hill, mound swelling PIE *kelH- 135 OHG kramph bent, crooked bending [14] 136 Gr. γλάφῠ hollow, cavern cavity [15] 137 Gr. κάλυμμα grave cavity [15] 138 Gr. κάλυμμα head-covering, hood, veil, covering put on the face of the dead headgear [15] 139 Gr. καμάρα anything with an arched cover: covered carriage; covered boat or barge; vaulted chamber; burial chamber; vault of heaven; vaulted ceiling dome [15] 140 Gr. κάμπτω 1. to bend, curve 2. to turn or guide a horse or chariot round the turning-post 3. to be bowed down bending [15] 141 Gr. κελεβή cup, jar, pan vessel [15] 142 Gr. κεφαλή head head PIE *gʰebʰ(e)l- [15, 12] 143 Gr. κέραμος 1. potter’s clay, 2. earthen vessel, wine-jar, 3. tile, 4. dungeon vessel [15] 144 Gr. χαβός curved bending [25] 145 Gr. χαμός curved bending [25] 146 Gr. κλίμα inclination, slope bending [15] 147 Gr. κυβιστάω tumble head foremost rotation [15] 148 Gr. κύβος 1. cubical die, 2. vertebra, 3. block of stone, 4. piece of salt fish, 5. kind of cubic cake, 6. hollow above the hips of cattle, 7. part of an irrigation-machine hook [15] 149 Gr. κύφελλα hollows of the ears cavity [15] 150 Gr. κύφελλα clouds of mist, arrows lump [15] 151 Gr. κῦμα anything swollen (as if pregnant): the swell of the sea, a wave, billow; the foetus in the womb, embryo etc. swelling [15] 152 Gr. κύμβη 1. hollow of a vessel, drinking cup, bowl 2. boat 3. knapsack, wallet vessel [15] 153 Gr. κύμβη head head [15] 154 Gr. κύπη 1. a kind of ship 2. a kind of hut vessel [15] 155 Gr. κύπη gap, hole cavity [25] 156 Heb. kipá kippah, traditional Jewish hat headgear 157 Heb. kipá dome (liteal meaning of kippah) dome 158 Hindi khopri skull head Sans. kharpara [13] 159 Hun. gamó hook, crook, branches hook [7] 160 Hun. gamó 1. having windgalls (swellings on the joints of horses) (1802), 2. big, unshapely foot (1885) swelling [7] 161 Hun. himpók windgall (swelling on the joints of a horse) swelling 162 Hun. kalap hat headgear 163 Hun. kampó hook hook 164 Hun. koporsó coffin vessel Chag. koburčak [26] 165 It. caraffa decanter, carafe vessel Sp. garaffa [14] 166 It. cupola dome dome Lat. cūpula (cuppula) [14] 167 It. gabbia basket for fowls, coop vessel 168 Jap. kaban bag, basket, briefcase vessel 169 Jap. kabuto helmet, headpiece headgear 170 Jap. kobu bump, lump lump 171 Jap. kobu protuberance, swelling swelling 172 Jap. kubi neck, head head 173 Jap. kubomi hollow, cavity, dent, depression cavity 174 Jap. kurumu wrap up bending 175 Kor. kopta be winding bending [23] 176 Kor. kwupta be bent bending [23] 177 Lat. calvāria skull head PIE *klHe-/klHou̯o- [25] 178 Lat. camurus curved or arched inwards; having such horns bending [19] 179 Lat. cappa cape, hooded cloak headgear [14] 180 Lat. caput head head PIE *kap-ut- [25] 181 Lat. caucum wooden bowl vessel 182 Lat. caupulus a kind of small ship vessel [13] 183 Lat. cavea enclosure, cage vessel 184 Lat. caverna cave, hole cavity Lat. cavus 185 Lat. cavus hollow, excavated, concave, deep (of water) cavity PIE *ḱouH-ó- [25] 186 Lat. cerebrum brain, skull vessel 187 Lat. cofia (cofea) cap headgear [13] 188 Lat. columen 1. pillar, column 2. peak, summit, zenith swelling PIE *kelH- 189 Lat. cubitum elbow, forearm bending 190 Lat. cubitus elbow, forearm bending [25] 191 Lat. cumulus heap, pile lump PIE *ḱuh1-mo- [25] 192 Lat. cūpella small vat or cask vessel Lat. cūpa 193 Lat. cuphia cap headgear [13] 194 Lat. cūpula (cuppula) small, crooked handle hook Lat. cūpa (cuppa) 195 Lat. cūpula (cuppula) little tub, cask vessel Lat. cūpa (cuppa) 196 Lat. cūpula (cuppula) small burying vault dome Lat. cūpa (cuppa) 197 Lat. curvus bent, crooked, curved bending PIE *kuru̯o-? [25] 198 Lat. gibbus hump, hunchbacked swelling PIE *geibʰ-? [25] 199 Lat. glēba (glaeba) lump of earth, clod lump PIE *gleb(ʰ)-? *glob(ʰ)-? [25] 200 Lat. globus round body, round sphere, globe ring 201 Lat. glomus ball-shaped mass lump PIE *glem-o/es- [13, 25] 202 Lat. grūmus heap of earth, hillock lump PIE *h2ǵr-ōm-o- [25] 203 Lat. hāmus hook, fish-hook hook [25] 204 Lith. kapas grave, tomb cavity 205 Lith. kupra hump swelling 206 Mal. koppara coconut lump Hindi khopri [13] 207 M.Du. crampe, cramp bent piece of iron bending [13] 208 mrw koba grave cavity [28] 209 Nivkh qob ladle vessel [21] 210 ON kobbi young seal cub [27] 211 O.Jap. kabu head head [11] 212 ota kepenek raincoat, cloak headgear 213 Pers. gonbad dome, vault, arch dome 214 Pers. kamar waist, loins ring [13] 215 Pol. chomąto horse collar hook 216 Pol. klomb flowerbed lump Eng. clump [26] 217 Quechua kump’u crooked, hunchbacked swelling 218 Quechua q’iwi arc, bow, curve; crooked, curved bending 219 Rus. глыба big lump lump 220 Rus. голова head head 221 Rus. горбатый hunchbacked lump 222 Rus. кабушка (кабушек) small lump (especially of curd or cheese) lump [9] 223 Rus. канава ditch cavity 224 Rus. кап burl (deformed growth on a tree) swelling 225 Rus. карапуз pudgy, chubby child swelling 226 Rus. каравай large round bread; round cake; boulder, roundish underwater stone lump [9] 227 Rus. каравай round bread lump 228 Rus. карман vessel 229 Rus. холм hill swelling OE holm [26] 230 Rus. клобук monk’s headgear headgear 231 Rus. клуб puff, roundish formation of smoke, dust, mist lump 232 Rus. клубень tuber lump 233 Rus. коба (кова) stump, snag; pile for fastening boats; hummock lump [9] 234 Rus. кобениться to bend, writhe, squirm, wriggle bending 235 Rus. кобеняк 1. bag, pouch 2. awkward, clumsy person lump [9] 236 Rus. кобло pit cavity [9] 237 Rus. колоб ball, round bread lump 238 Rus. колпак high-crowned cap, cowl headgear Turk. kalpak [26] 239 Rus. колыбель crib vessel 240 Rus. ком lump, ball lump 241 Rus. копь mine cavity 242 Rus. копа sixty (originally: pile, heap) vessel [26] 243 Rus. копать to dig cavity 244 Rus. копец hill, knoll, boundary post lump [26] 245 Rus. копна haycock; something having the shape of a haycock (in particular a tuft of hair) lump 246 Rus. короб basket, box vessel 247 Rus. коробья 1. basket, chest, box 2. measure of grain vessel 248 Rus. ковалок chunk, slice (esp. of meat) lump [9] 249 Rus. ковчег 1. box, vessel 2. Ark of the Covenant, Noah’s Ark vessel [26] 250 Rus. коверкать to bend, distort bending 251 Rus. ковш ladle vessel 252 Rus. куб vat vessel 253 Rus. кубарь spinning top rotation 254 Rus. кубель vat vessel [9] 255 Rus. кубель 1. wooden toy sphere 2. wallet, knapsack out of birch bark lump [9] 256 Rus. кубиться to gather into a pile, lump, crowd lump [9] 257 Rus. кубок cup, goblet, bowl vessel Rus. куб [26] 258 Rus. кувшин jug vessel 259 Rus. кувырок somersault, roll, tumble rotation 260 Rus. кузов carcass of a truck or ship; basket vessel [26] 261 Sans. kapāla skull, cranium, skull-bone head [17] 262 Sans. kapāla cup, jar, dish vessel [17] 263 Sans. kharpara 1. thief, rogue, cheat 2. skull 3. a beggar’s bowl or dish, 4. umbrella or parasol 5. a kind of mineral substance head [17] 264 Sans. kumbhá jar, pitcher, water-pot, ewer, small water-jar vessel [15, 17] 265 Sans. kumbhá the frontal globe or prominence on the upper part of the forehead of an elephant swelling [17] 266 Sp. garrafa decanter, carafe vessel Ar. ġarrāfa [14] 267 Sum. gabil 1. basket 2. main beam of a chariot vessel [20] 268 Sum. gam shepherd’s crook, bent stick; haft, hilt hook [20] 269 Sum. gurum to bend, curve, wrap around; to bow; to roll up; to curb, restrain; to watch over bending [20] 270 Sum. gurum pile lump [20] 271 Sum. kibid backside, ass swelling [20] 272 swe kavel rolling pin rotation 273 Tamil kappal ship vessel 274 Turk. kabar to swell swelling 275 Turk. kabuk bowl vessel 276 Turk. kalpak high-crowned cap headgear 277 Turk. kap vessel vessel 278 Ukr. каблук curve, bend of a road bending [26]
I should note that this list can only serve as a list of candidates. In no way do I claim that all of the words have been formed sound-symbolically (many are in fact attested loans). The latter is of course a thing which is almost impossible to prove most of the time. A sufficiently long list is, however, a first prerequisite to demonstrate that the correlation between kup/korb and convexity is not a coincidence that just works with any sound-shape and any meaning.
To round things up, one can show how the various fields interact using the semantic map technique. For this specific case one could do it in the following way: Filtering out all words which are attested in different fields, one can put them on a graph and draw a line between two vertices whenever a semantic field is shared. This leads to the following picture:
We can see that vessel, lump and hook have the most connections, with the other areas being connected peripherally.
It is interesting to note at this point that in a letter discussing the pitfalls of historical semantics, Tolkien mentions Latin corbis as the formal equivalent of English harp (that is, they look like cognates). He goes on to say that “the poor philologist will have to call on some archaeological expert before he can decide whether any relationship between ‘harps’ and ‘baskets’ is possible – supposing Gmc. harpō always meant ‘harp’ or corbi-s always meant ‘wicker basket’! corbīta means a fat-bellied ship” (Let#209). Klein explains harp as literally meaning ‘an instrument plucked with crooked fingers’ [13], comparing ON herpask ‘to contract (one’s fingers)’ and Russian коробить ‘to bend, warp’.
We can now finally turn to Tolkien’s languages and apply the same procedure, looking for words satisfying the kup/korb phonetic shape while also belonging in the outlined semantic categories. The following, still quite sizeable set can be found:
lg. gloss translation root sem. ref. 1 G. cam bent, bowed; submissive, humble KAVA- bending GL:25 2 G. cam(m)a- to stoop, bend, bow, cower KAVA- bending GL:25 3 G. caug humpback KAẆA- ’stoop’ swelling GL:25 4 G. caug humped, bulging KAVA- swelling GL:25 5 G. caug bent KAVA- bending GL:25 6 G. cav- to bend, make stoop KAVA- bending GL:25 7 G. corm globe, a ring or circle, a disc *KORO- ring GL:26 8 G. corob skull *KORO- head GL:26 9 G. cub hollow *KUPU- cavity GL:27 10 G. cûf hollow *KUPU- cavity GL:27 11 G. cûm mound, especially grave, burial mound KUMU- ’heap up’ lump GL:27 12 G. cuptha- to bend (tr.) *KUVU- bending GL:27 13 G. cuvon bowed, bent, concave *KUVU- bending GL:27 14 G. gob hollow of hand *KOPO- cavity GL:40 15 N. calf water-vessel KALPA- vessel LR:362 16 N. crib- to bend krikw- bending PE13:141 17 N. cumb, cum mound, heap KUB- lump LR:365 18 N. gamp hook, claw GAP- hook LR:357 19 Q. carva womb ?KAR-/?KARAB- swelling VT43:31 20 Q. colba womb ?KOL-/?KOLOB- swelling NM:91,120 21 Q. kalpa water-vessel KALPA- vessel LR:362 22 Q. kalpa- to draw water, scoop out, bale out KALPA- cavity LR:362 23 Q. kamba bend [sic], crooked KAVA- < *KABA- bending GL:25 24 Q. kambe hollow (of hand) KAB- ’hollow’ cavity LR:361 25 Q. kambo cellar, cave, vault KAVA- < *KABA- dome QL:45 26 Q. kauka crooked, bent, bowed KAẆA- ’stoop’ bending QL:45, GL:25 27 Q. kauka humped KAẆA- ’stoop’ swelling QL:45 28 Q. kauko (-u) humpback KAẆA- ’stoop’ swelling GL:25 29 Q. kauta- to bend *KAW- bending PE16:100 30 Q. kava- to dig KAVA- < *KABA- cavity QL:45 31 Q. kawin I bow, make obeisance KAẆA- ’stoop’ bending QL:45 32 Q. kolma ring KOL- ring VT45:23 33 Q. kōma ball KOMO- ring QL:47 34 Q. kōmea globe-shaped, round KOMO- ring QL:47 35 Q. kop- hollow of hand *KOPO- cavity GL:40 36 Q. korma ring *KOR- ring LotR 37 Q. -kumba bellied *KUB- swelling SD:68,72 38 Q. kumbe mound, heap KUB- lump LR:365 39 Q. kumbe pile, heap, load, burden KUMU- ’heap up’ lump QL:49 40 Q. kúme pile, heap, load, burden KUMU- ’heap up’ lump QL:49 41 Q. kumpo pile KUMU- ’heap up’ lump QL:49 42 Q. kūne crescent, bow KUVU- ’bend, bow’ bending QL:49 43 Q. kupta- to hump up, look humpy, etc. KUPU- ’hump’ swelling QL:49 44 Q. kuptulo camel KUPU- ’hump’ swelling QL:49 45 Q. kuve bow KUB- bending PE22:102 46 S. carab hat *KARAP- headgear WJ:426 47 S. haudh funeral mound KHAB- ’heap up, pile up’ lump PE19:91 48 T. hamna funeral mound KHAB- ’heap up, pile up’ lump PE19:91
Before proceeding, let us look at some statistics and compare the Elvish data with the natural languages (excluding Cohen’s data). For the first consonant, one finds the following distributions:
For the vowel:
Finally, for the second consonant:
I do not think that much can be said about the distributions of the consonants: The commonness of K probably just reflects its relative commonness compared to G or H in the languages involved. The high frequency of V in Elvish is clearly due to the Quenya shift of [b] > [v], and so on. However, looking at the distribution of vowels, one finds the same pattern as in Cohen’s data: While A is the most common vowel, E almost does not appear at all and I only very little. Here, one can make a quantitative comparison to the rank-frequencies of Elvish vowels. For Sindarin (including the Noldorin of the “Etymologies”), I have calculated them directly [4]; for Quenya only in initial and final position in conjuncture with consonants [6] (using a list of words from the “Etymologies” only). The latter two actually give similar results and thus should be a reasonable approximation:
So while the commonness of A in the kup/korb shape clearly reflects its commonness in Elvish overall, a striking deviation is the near-absence of E, I on the one hand, and the highly increased frequency of O, U on the other (especially U). It is not difficult to see that the vowels O and U, which involve lip rounding, are particularly iconic in their reference to rounded or convex shapes, so that the preference given to them over E and I ties in well with the semantics. This appears to be true for Elvish and natural languages alike (and can be also seen in Cohen’s data above).
Finally, we can also compare the distribution of the words among the semantic fields:
Here we can see a lot of differences. While vessel is the most common semantic field in natural languages, it is almost not represented in Elvish, occurring only in the words Q. kalpa, N. calf ‘water-vessel’. The two most common fields in Elvish are bending and lump, which are also common in natural languages. On the other hand, cavity and swelling are noticeably more common in Elvish. It would appear that all of this simply reflects Tolkien’s taste, his own association with the kup/korb sound shape.
We can now formulate the following hypothesis: The word hobbit is related to a universal sound-symbolic shape kup, defined by velar – rounded vowel – labial (or korb with an optional liquid) which independently occurs in many languages and is semantically centered around the idea of convexity or concavity1. In natural languages it occurs most frequently in names for vessels of various kind, followed by words for ‘lump’ and words related to bending. Tolkien places it most commonly among ‘bending’, ‘lump’, ‘cavity’ and ‘swelling’. And hobbit has been conceived not just on its own, but along with its hole in the ground.
Following the creation of the word, Tolkien has always explained it as ‘hole-dweller’, sometimes as ‘hole-maker’ (see below). At the end of The Lord of the Rings, the true Westron word rendered by English hobbit is said to be kuduk, related to a Rohan word kûd-dûkan (LotR App. F, note 1). In an earlier conception, however, the endonym used in the Shire was cūbuc (with final vowel loss and devoicing of cūbug(u)), pl. cūbugin, a reflex of an Old Westron word cūg-bagu ‘hole-dweller’, preserved in Rohan (PE:49). Other earlier variants include:
In the preparatory conceptions of Westron, we also find:
Obviously, we have that kūg or kūd is ‘hole’, while -bagu(l), -badul or -dūka is ‘dweller’, but in the usage of the Shire, the word does not seem to be analyzable any longer, the two elements fuse into a kup shape (except for kuduk, of course). On the other hand, glōba and kubu, kubal confirm to the shape right from the start.
So it would appear that hobbit simply reflects Tolkien’s preference of kup to denote hollow cavities rather than vessels. The seeds were already laid in his languages by G. cub, cûf ‘hollow’, gob ‘hollow of hand’, Q. kop- hollow (of hand)’ and kava- ‘dig’ appearing in the Gnomish and Qenya Lexicons long before the Hobbit. Finally, one may speculate that his choice of [h] as the initial sound was influenced by the English word ‘hole’, while the ending -it shows a high front vowel typical of diminutives [6].
I would like to thank Lőrinczi Gábor and Valeria Barouch for helpful discussions.
This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.