An apparently verbal root as √SRIS “snow” appearing in etymological notes from around 1959 with derivatives like Q. hrisse “fall of snow” and Q. hríza “it is snowing”; it replaced a deleted root √SRITH “snow” (PE17/168).
Primitive elvish
(g)los
root. snow, whiteness
Derivatives
- ✶lossē “snow” ✧ PE17/161; VT42/18
- ✶lossĭ “snowy, snow-white” ✧ PE17/161
- Q. lossë “snow, fallen snow; snow-white, snowy” ✧ PE17/161
- Q. lossë “snow, fallen snow; snow-white, snowy” ✧ PE17/026; RGEO/61; SA/los; VT42/18
- Q. lossë “inflorescence (of white flowers), [ᴹQ.] (white) blossom, flower, [ᴱQ.] (white) flower; [Q.] inflorescence (of white flowers); [ᴱQ.] rose” ✧ PE17/160
- ᴺQ. olotsë “collection of flowers”
- S. gloss “(dazzling) white, (dazzling) white, [N.] snow-white, [G.] clear white; [N.] snow” ✧ RGEO/61; VT42/18
- ᴺS. glosta- “to snow”
- S. glosui “snow white” ✧ PE17/161
- S. loss “snow” ✧ PE17/026; RGEO/61; SA/los; VT42/18
Element in
- Q. Oiolossë “Ever (Snow) White” ✧ PE17/069
Variations
- LŎS ✧ PE17/026; PE17/161
- LOS ✧ PE17/069; PE17/160; PE17/160; PE17/160; PE17/161
- los ✧ RGEO/61; SA/los
lossē
noun. snow
Derivations
- √(G)LOS “snow, whiteness” ✧ PE17/161; VT42/18
Derivatives
Variations
- loss- ✧ VT42/18
sris
root. snow
Derivatives
Element in
- Q. hristil “snow (?peak)” ✧ PE17/168
srith
root. snow
Derivatives
- Q.
hrisya-“to snow (impersonal)” ✧ PE17/168
In Tolkien’s writing the root √(G)LOS is mostly used for “snow” but also for “white”. The earliest indications of this root are words from the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s such as G. gloss “white, clear white”, G. glost “whiteness” and (possibly) G. glui “snow” (GL/40), indicating an (unattested) early root ✱ᴱ√LOSO of similar meaning. The (plural) adjective ᴱQ. losse “white” appears in the ᴱQ. Oilima Markirya poem of the late 1920s (MC/213), indicating this root spread to other branches of the Elvish languages.
The first clear mention of this root is in The Etymologies of the 1930s where ᴹ√GOLOS is given as the basis for ᴹQ. olos(se) and N. gloss “snow, fallen snow” (Ety/GOLÓS). In later writings the root √LOS appears several times as the basis for snow words (PE17/26, 69, 160-161; RGEO/61). The last mention of this root is in notes on The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor from the late 1960s, where Tolkien gave the root as √(G)LOS with the underlying meaning “white”, with two distinct Sindarin derivatives S. loss “snow” [noun] and S. gloss “snow white” [adj.] (VT42/18). Given this l/gl variation in Sindarin, likely the strengthened form √GLOS was a sporadic, Sindarin-only innovation.