Gilliver, Marshall, and Weiner note how Tolkien repur-posed the term. Tolkien brought it down in the world, for among the hobbits it denotes a piece of bric-a-brac, something that is only subjectively a treasure because you don’t want to part with it, although at the same time it is clear that the giving of presents, many of which were probably mathoms, was a highly important part of hobbit life.
