ent

A large, fictional, humanoid, walking tree in works by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Noun

  1. A large, fictional, humanoid, walking tree in works by J. R. R. Tolkien.
    • […]and that fine young ent Quickbeam is merely a minor crux in an Old English glossary (the name Quickbeam means 'living tree' in Old English). - 2003, Walter Scheps, “The Fairy-tale Morality of The Lord of the Rings”,...
    • But this should not lead to complete avoidance, as if it is like some dire incursion of triffids or ents. - 2003, Allen Paterson, Trees for Your Garden, page 180:
    • Somewhere, ents and manitous laugh grimly For, despite all this, the trees lasted much longer Than most of the presents, and all of the holiday spirit. - 2003, Robert Dunn, Horse Latitudes, page 98:

Origin

Learned borrowing from Old English ent (“giant”), from Proto-West Germanic *anti; introduced by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings, 1954–55, as Ent. Compare Middle English *ent, eont (“giant”), inherited from the Old English word, but which apparently did not survive through the Middle English period into Modern times. Apparently survived in some German dialects as Enz (“giant”), also in composite forms. Compare ettin.

Forms

ents Ent

Wikipedia

J. R. R. Tolkien

Derived

entmoot treant

Verb

  1. To pour, especially of rain.
    • "[…] ent me out some beer, / Fill up my glass to quinch my thust, Weth bitter like thee'st gove me fust." - 1880, Cornish tales, Cornish tales, in prose and verse, in the Cornish dialect [ed. by J.T. Tregellas]., page...
    • A Truro correspondent remembers being sent to buy a teapot with the admonition 'and see he got a good ent to un'; that is, of course, a good 'pour'. "Enting down with rain" is still occasionally heard. - 1976, K. C....
    • "And look at it enting down. I'm glad I'm not out in it." - 2015 April 28, Beth Hersant, Good Neighbours, Troubador Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 285:

Origin

Possibly from empty, through assimilation of /m/ to the following /t/.

Forms

ents enting ented