What is the word?

Badinage?

Witty repartee, banter--exchange of clever quips and teasing insults.

no...the word I'm thinking of does not imply any intelligence.

I heard it in LOTR the 2 towers...Gandalf says, "I did not come here to bandecrit(?) words with a witless halfwit" or something like that

stuh--

Nothing of the sort in the books--and I understand that LOTR made a point of using Tolkien's dialogue whenever possible.

Of course, I've been wrong before.

You could push the "Report" button on your first post on this thread and ask the Mods to move it to "Film".

Noddy,

I can't remember if it's in the books or not...why, did you just check?

Anyway, I took the liberty of recording it so you can listen to the word yourself!

http://ardan-nights.org/members/downloads/sounds/other/words.mp3

OK...mystery solved! He was speaking nonsense, and now I know what the real words were supposed to be I looked it up in the book...

Ian:

"I have not passed through fire and death to bendy-creet words with a witless worm."

Tolkien:

"I have not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a serving-man till the lightning falls."

I love it when everyone is correct. The world needs more happy endings.