Gloss “i̯ǝƀánna” by Eldamo Import

This doesn't say what it means... why not?

Firstly, I should clarify that you are looking at an "Early Primitive Elvish" word. What that means is quite complex, but I will try and explain...

Simply put, "Early" means "(Rejected) Draft". Since Tolkien worked on his world and languages for about 60 years, he changed his mind a lot, and two of those changes were fundamental. So there are (basically) three stages of their real-world development:

• Early Period (1930 and before) = (Rejected) Drafts
• Middle Period (1930-1950) = Drafts
• Late Period (1950 and after) = Canon

So, since this word is "Early", meaning "(Rejected) Draft" and not really canon, you need not bother with it at all. But there is another reason to ignore this word...

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Unlike the real-world history above, Tolkien also invented fictional histories for his languages in each period. Like so:

Primitive Elvish(Quenderin) > Common Eldarin > Ancient Telerin > Old Sindarin > Sindarin

So this entry shows a "Primitive" word. And such words (in the canonical late period) are eleven thousand year-old ancient words, if we look back from the time of the LotR stories in the Third Age. Meaning that, "Primitive" words are neither Quenya nor Sindarin words, but the "ancestors" of Q. & S. words.

Primitive Elvish has little to no value for casual fans or even linguistic enthusiasts, unless they wish to dive deeply into the rabbit-hole that is Tolkienian linguistics in its entirety. And the same goes (with more emphasis) for earlier drafts of the languages. So this word is "doubly ignorable".

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Now I can answer your question. There is no gloss (meaning) section in that entry because it is a direct quotation from the document where Tolkien wrote it. In other words, Tolkien did not write what it means, and so there is no meaning here either. But I can tell you what it means. It is an "Early Primitive" (thus "Draft & Ancient") form of the Quenya name Yavanna which basically means "Fruit-giver".