Neologism for "to forget"?

Ciryaquendil #1188

Hi,

It's been some time since I first noticed Quenya didn't include a gloss for "to forget" among its vocabulary, so that I came up with another option and would like whether is it valid or not for personal use. Ollum-, primitive verb.

Explanation; basically rendering lum- as a verb having to do with time and the adding the or- preffix to denote surpassing or excessment, which I once saw used on this site for such meaning in ortimno "guardian". Much like the distinction between the bare verb "run" and the compound "outrun" in English. Something like "(to be) overtimed/outrun by time" might be taken from this expression as the form ollumina.

I don't really think this to be the best option out there though. Perhaps an expression like "My heart no longer keeps it" or "My mind has left it" could better fit the purpose for this gloss. Perhaps Tolkien himself intentionously obviated an strict word for "to forget" in favour of a fancier dict for us to discover decades after him. Edit: I already knew from laisa-, my bad.

And lastly, this might have been previously said here, but Christopher Tolkien passed away on 15th January and left most of us with an extraordinary legacy of his father's work, which we all should be thankful for. May he find rest and peace in Mandos, or perhaps, beyond our known world. R.I.P. Christopher Tolkien.

Aldaleon #1190

Thank you, Ciryaquendil.

His passing away has not gone unnoticed, and I regret not having had the health nor the time to appropriately commemorate him on Parf Edhellen. His meticulous and tireless work brought us closer to the fantastic culture, history, people and languages of the Middle Earth. I will forever remember him for having edited and published the Silmarillion, my all-time favourite book, as well as the heart-wrenching tragedies of the Fall of Gondolin and Beren and Lúthien.

Nai isse hiruva Valimar!

Into the West

Elaran #1191

Creative ways to say things can work well in poems, but for general use one should be more cautious. And not only with the sense, but also with the rules in mind. That is to say, I disagree with the idea of using "over-time" as a verb, but even if I liked it, the root of lúmë is LU, not "lum", so it would not work in that form.

Now... Tolkien's earliest drafts of Sindarin (i.e. Goldogrin/Gnomish at the time) already had the verb "to forget" in the form "laitha-", but this cannot be used in Sindarin directly due to a few reasons: The simple reason is that it does not fit the phonetics of Sindarin, as it has a non-final "ai" (which should be either "ei" or "ae" depending on etymology). And the complex reason is that the primitive root of this verb *LITH (from 1920~, possibly *LEKH as well) was updated to LETH (1930~) and finally LEK (1940~). Also the sense seem to have shifted from "lose, forget" to "loose, release", although some argue that the earlier senses can still apply.

As for that "laisa-" which you saw, it does not come from Tolkien. The neologisms Q. *laisa- (laiþa-) & S. *laetha- are simply phonetic updates of the draft word itself , thus creating a root rather than a derivation. And this "neo-root", LAYATH, does not quite agree with the attested roots like LAY "flourish" & LAYAK "fresh" (compare BAR "raise, uplift" & BARATH "height"). Hence I rather suggest extending the sense of the attested verb leitha- "to loose, release" to include "to lose, forget" as well. But if one wishes to avoid overburdening that verb, a direct derivation from LEK as *leg- which can already be found on this website. And a Quenya cognate of that neologism would be *lec-.

TL;DR: I recommend using Q. *lec- & S. *leg- (or extending the meaning of Q. lehta- & S. leitha-) for the sense "to forget".

Ciryaquendil #1192

Thank you so much Elaran. I'm aware that rigourousness must always be present in regards to "emulating" or thinking on what Tolkien himself could have come up with when trying to use tricky terms. I'll use lec- then. I wish I could be such an expert on Tolkien's languages, or even conlanging in general, as you and other members of this community are, it would probably take me aeons to acquaint such an amount of information and attention to details though. Thank you very much :).