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mathom

noun
/ˈmæðəm/

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Old English māþum (“treasure, object of value, jewel, ornament, gift”), from Proto-Germanic *maiþmaz (“present, gift”); introduced by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings with the conceit that it was a translation of his invented language Adûni's kast, a word used by Hobbits as a generic name for items which they were unwilling to throw away, but for which they had no use.

  1. derived from *maiþmaz✻ — “present, gift”
  2. learned borrowing from māþum — “treasure, object of value, jewel, ornament, gift”

Definitions

  1. A trinket or piece of bric-a-brac

    A trinket or piece of bric-a-brac; a knick-knack, often used in regifting.

    • The first person to put a marker on a piece of land or ancestral mathom and say 'this is mine' was the first owner of capital, the first thief, the first magician.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for mathom. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA