Mathom

And Hobbit names and special words are intended to be pronounced accordingly: for example, Bolger has g as in bulge, and mathom rhymes with fathom. ❋ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954)

Most notable were the names of days, months, and seasons; several other words of the same sort (such as mathom and smial) were also still in common use, while more were preserved in the place-names of Bree and the Shire. ❋ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954)

The Peabody Essex Museum is fabulous -- the mathom-house of all the cool stuff however obtained that came home on Yankee sailing ships. ❋ Unknown (2010)

I believe the correct word for "stupid little thingy gift that no one really wants" is mathom. ❋ Anne Johnson (2008)

Perhaps, even, I do not want a little snowman mathom. ❋ Anne Johnson (2008)

Well, no, perhaps I do not need a little snowman mathom. ❋ Anne Johnson (2008)

A mathom is something handed down, passed around and given away. ❋ Donna Farley (2008)

One thing I especially love about hobbit birthdays is the ‘mathom’ tradition. ❋ Donna Farley (2008)

This goes double for major research libraries, which are textual mathom-houses. ❋ Unknown (2003)

He also wrote a short treatise on Old Words and Names in the Shire, having special interest in discovering the kinship with the language of the Rohirrim of such 'shire-words' as mathom and old elements in place names. ❋ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1965)

The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom. ❋ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1965)

Thus mathom is meant to recall ancient English máthm, and so to represent the relationship of the actual Hobbit kast to R. kastu. ❋ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954)

He also wrote a short treatise on Old Words and Names in the Shire, having special interest in discovering the kinship with the language of the Rohirrim of such ‘shire-words’ as mathom and old elements in place names. ❋ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954)

OFA and sent out a request to all my acquaintance to choose one really good thing that they didn't want (a wedding present, flea market find, mathom) to bring, along with a donation, to swap. ❋ Unknown (2010)

"It was a tendency of hobbit-holes to get cluttered up; for which the custom of giving so many birthday-presents was largely responsible. Not, of course, that the birthday-presents were always new; there were one or two old mathoms of forgotten uses that had circulated all around the district; but [Bilbo] had usually given new presents and kept those that he received." -- [J.R.R. Tolkien], [The Fellowship] of the Ring, p. 65. ❋ Alf112 (2006)

In [these days] of commercialization, [no one] thinks to use mathoms as [Christmas presents]... ❋ Curuniel (2003)