-iel

daughter

-iel patronymic/matronymic ending -"daughter" (YEL, VT46:22-23) In the Etymologies, Tolkien struck out this ending and the corresponding independent word yeldë "daughter", changing them to -ien, yendë. However, the ending -iel later turns up in later forms: Uinéniel "Daughter of Uinen" in UT:182 and Elerondiel "daughter of Elrond" (Elerondo) in PE17:56. Hence it would seem that Tolkien changed his mind again and restored this ending, and perhaps the noun yeldë along with it. The form Elerondiel (from Elerondo) demonstrates that a final vowel is omitted before -iel.

-iel

suffix. -daughter; feminine suffix

The most common Quenya suffix for “daughter of” such as in Elerondiel “✱Daughter of Elrond” (PE17/56) or Uinéniel “Daughter of Uinen” (UT/182).

Conceptual Development: The earliest hint of this suffix was ᴱQ. -il mentioned by Tolkien in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as the equivalent of feminine patronymic ᴱQ. -wen (QL/103), but its only use in this period was in the masculine name ᴱQ. Indorildo, a variant of ᴱQ. Indorion and hence probably meaning “son of” (LT2/217). In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien mentioned ᴹQ. -iel as a feminine patronymic under the root ᴹ√YEL “daughter” (Ety/YEL¹), but this root was rejected and in that document Tolkien seems to have replaced it with ᴹQ. -ien (EtyAC/YŌ).

In later writings Tolkien considered a bewildering variety of suffixes for the feminine patronymic, including -iel(d), -well, -wend and -ien (PE17/170, 190). In practice, though, only -iel appeared in actual names for “daughter of” (see above), perhaps because it is was the cleanest equivalent of the well-established masculine patronymic -ion “son of”.

Changes

• -yel → -well- ✧ PE17/190
• iel → -uell- ✧ PE17/190
• -yelde → -wend- ✧ PE17/190

Cognates

• S. -iel “daughter; feminine suffix” ✧ PE17/023

Derivations

• ✶-iel “feminine suffix”

Element in

• Q. Ailinel
• Q. Almiel “?Blessed Daughter”
• Q. aranel “princess”
• Q. Elerondiel “*Daughter of Elrond”
• Q. Faniel
• Q. Fíriel “She that Died; She that Sighed”
• Q. Ilthániel “Starkindler” ✧ PE17/023 (Ilthániel*)
• Q. Manyel
• Q. Míriel “*Jewel-daughter”
• Q. Tindómiel “*Daughter of Twilight”
• Q. Uinéniel “Daughter of Uinen”

Variations

• iel ✧ PE17/023; PE17/170; PE17/190 (iel)
• -ĕl ✧ PE17/170
• -ielde ✧ PE17/170
• -well- ✧ PE17/190
• -uell- ✧ PE17/190
• -wend- ✧ PE17/190
• -wel ✧ PE17/190
• -yel ✧ PE17/190 (-yel)
• -yelde ✧ PE17/190 (-yelde)

-ien

daughter

-ien fem. ending in certain names like Yávien, Silmarien (q.v.) At one point -ien implied "daughter", see -iel above.

Almiel

daughter of blessedness

Almiel fem. name, perhaps *"daughter of blessedness": almië + -iel with contraction / haplology.

-wen

maiden

-wen "maiden" as suffix, a frequent ending in feminine names like Eärwen "Sea-maiden" (SA:wen). Early "Qenya" also has -wen, feminine patronymic "daughter of" (LT1:271, 273), but the patronymic ending seems to be -iel "-daughter" in Tolkien's later Quenya.

anel

daughter

anel noun "daughter" (PE17:170), possibly intended by Tolkien as a replacement for seldë (q.v.). Compare anon.

anel

noun. daughter

A transient word for “daughter” in Notes on Names (NN) from 1957, written of above the more common sel-de (PE17/170).

seldë

noun. daughter, daughter; [ᴹQ.] child [f.], *girl

This seems to be the word that Tolkien favored for “daughter” in his later writings (PE17/170; VT47/10; PE19/73), though it had competition from other forms like Q. yeldë.

Conceptual Development: The earliest word resembling this form was ᴱQ. sui “daughter” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√SUẈU (QL/87), a word also mentioned in the Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa (PME/87). This became ᴱQ. silde “daughter” in Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s (PE16/135).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s, Tolkien experimented with several different forms. He had ᴹQ. yelde “daughter” under the root ᴹ√YEL, but this entry was deleted (Ety/YEL). Tolkien also had a root ᴹ√SEL(D) “daughter” with a derivative ᴹQ. selde, but the meaning of this root was changed to “child”, and masculine and neuter forms ᴹQ. seldo and ᴹQ. selda were added to the entry (Ety/SEL-D). Finally, under the entry for ᴹ√YŌ or YON “son”, Tolkien added a primitive feminine variant ᴹ✶yēn or yend “daughter”, producing ᴹQ. yende and (suffixal?) yen (Ety/YŌ).

These vacillations continued in later writings, where at one point Tolkien wrote “Q[uenya] Wanted: Son, Daughter” (PE17/170). In Notes on Names (NN) from 1957 Tolkien wrote Q. sel-de for “daughter”, but above it he wrote a variant form anel. In rough notes from around 1959 Tolkien explored a large number of masculine and feminine suffixes, and on the page he had yeldë “daughter”, though at the end of the sentence he wrote “also yen” (PE17/190). In notes on Eldarin Hands, Fingers and Numerals from the late 1960s, Tolkien wrote selyë as a diminutive/affectionate word for “daughter”, with seltil as a play name for the fourth finger representing a daughter (VT47/10, 27).

Also of note is Tolkien’s Quenya name for S. Tinúviel “Daughter of Twilight”, which he generally represented as something like Q. Tindómerel < ✶Tindōmiselde. Tolkien was fairly consistent in this Quenya form starting in the 1930s (Ety/SEL-D; PE19/33), with examples in the 1950s (PE19/73) and 1960s (VT47/37) as well. Indeed, in a couple cases he used this name to illustrate how medial s generally became z and eventually r in Quenya (PE19/33, 73), so it seems that for this name Tolkien consistently imagined the primitive form for “daughter” as ✶selde.

Neo-Quenya: I’d assume selde is the main word for “daughter” for purposes of Neo-Quenya, but I’d assume a variant form yeldë, especially since -iel was the most common suffix for “daughter of”. This variant probably arose very early under the influence of √YON “son”.

Cognates

• S. sell “*daughter, daughter; [N.] †girl, maid”

Derivations

• ✶sel(dĕ) “*daughter”
  • ᴹ√SEL(D) “child, child; *daughter”

Element in

• Q. Elerondorel “*Daughter of Elrond”
• Q. selyë “daughter (diminutive)”
• Q. Tindómerel “Daughter of Twilight”

Variations

• sel-de ✧ PE17/170

selyë

daughter

[selyë noun "daughter", used in children's play for "fourth finger" or "fourth toe" _(VT47:10, 15, VT48:4) _It is unclear whether it was the word selyë "daughter" itself that was rejected, or just its use as a play-name of a digit. Compare yeldë, yendë.]

yeldë

daughter

yeldë noun "daughter" (YEL) This word was struck out in Etym, but it may have been restored together with the ending -iel, q.v.

yeldë

noun. daughter

A less common Quenya word for “daughter”, an analog of Q. yondo “son”.

Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien had ᴹQ. yelde “daughter” under the root ᴹ√YEL of the same meaning, but the meaning of the root was first changed to “friend”, and then the root was then deleted (Ety/YEL). Meanwhile, under the root ᴹ√YŌ or YON, Tolkien introduced a feminine variant ᴹQ. yende “daughter” along with (suffixal?) yen, derived from primitive ᴹ√yēn or yend (Ety/YŌ). Previously this yende/yendi form was a feminine agent, but Tolkien rejected that meaning (EtyAC/ƷAN).

In between yelde >> yende for “daughter” in The Etymologies, Tolkien considered using the form ᴹQ. selde, and in later writings this seems to be his preferred Quenya word for “daughter”. However, yeldë “daughter” was mentioned again briefly in rough notes from around 1959 (PE17/190), and -iel remained Tolkien’s preferred suffix for “daughter of”.

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I recommend seldë as the more common word for “daughter”, but assume yeldë also exists as variant due to the influence of yondo “son”; see the entries on seldë and the root √YE(L) for further discussion.

Derivations

• √YE(L) “daughter” ✧ PE17/190

Variations

• yelde ✧ PE17/190

Tindómiel

daughter of twilight

Tindómiel, fem. name (UT:210), probably *"daughter of twilight" (tindómë + -iel) and thus the equivalent of Sindarin Tinúviel. Compare tindómerel.

tindómerel

daughter of twilight

tindómerel (also capitalized Tindómerel) fem. name "daughter of twilight", a kenning (poetic name) of the nightingale; = Sindarin Tinúviel. (TIN, SEL-D, SA:tin; "Tindómrl" in mirrored Tengwar in VT47:37 would seem to be an incomplete annotation of the same word). The form Tindómiel (UT:210) could well be an alternative Quenya equivalent of Tinúviel, and it is possibly to be preferred because the status of the ending -rel "daughter" is uncertain (it was to represent older -zel, -sel corresponding to the independent word seldë, but Tolkien changed the meaning of this word from "daughter" to "child", and since the word for "child" appears as hína in later texts, it may be that seldë and the corresponding ending -rel were dropped altogether).

tindómerel

feminine name. Daughter of Twilight

The Quenya name of Tinúviel (SA/tin, PE19/73). Since she was a Sindarin elf, this name is largely theoretical, as a development from the same primitive form: ✶Tindōmiselde. This name is a compound of tindómë and a suffixal form -rel of seldë “daughter”. In a couple places, Tolkien used this name to illustrated the development of primitive intervocalic ✶[s] into Quenya [r] (PE19/33, 73).

Conceptual Development: The earliest “Qenya” name for Tinúviel was ᴹQ. Tinúviel in linguistic notes from the early 1930s; it was declined in various noun cases, and was clearly intended to be a purely Qenya name rather than an adaptation of the Noldorin Tinúviel (PE21/35). The name ᴹQ. Tindómerel appeared in The Etymologies from the mid-1930s, where it already had the derivation described above (Ety/SEL-D, TIN). In some notes on Quenya phonology from the 1930s, this name appeared as Tindómirel with a medial i (PE19/33), but in a revision of those notes from the 1950s it was reverted back to Tindómerel (PE19/73). It appeared as (Tindómrl) in some examples of left-handed tengwar writing from the 1960s (VT47/37); Tolkien probably neglected to add the vowel diacritics in this case.

Cognates

• S. Tinúviel “Nightingale, (lit.) Daughter of Twilight” ✧ PE19/073; SA/tin

Derivations

• ✶Tindōmiselde “Nightingale, (lit.) Daughter of Twilight” ✧ PE19/073

Elements

Word	Gloss
tindómë	“(starry) twilight, (usually) time near dawn, (starry) twilight, time near dawn, [ᴹQ.] starlit dusk”
seldë	“daughter, daughter; [ᴹQ.] child [f.], *girl”

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
✶tindōmi-sel(dĕ) > tindómizel > tindómerel	[tindōmiselde] > [tindōmiseld] > [tindōmizeld] > [tindōmizel] > [tindōmirel] > [tindōmerel]	✧ PE19/073

Variations

• tindómerel ✧ PE19/073; SA/tin
• Tindómrl ✧ VT47/37

vendë

maiden

vendë < wendë noun "maiden" (WEN/WENED, VT45:16), "virgin" (in Tolkien's translations of Catholic prayers where the reference is to Mary; see VT44:10, 18). The form Véndë in VT44:10 seems abnormal; normally Quenya does not have a long vowel in front of a consonant cluster.

wendë

noun. maiden

-ya

suffix. adjective suffix

Derivations

• ✶-yā “present participle” ✧ PE17/068

Element in

• Q. Aldúya “*Tuesday, Day of the Two Trees”
• Q. Amanyar “Those of Aman”
• Q. Anarya “Sunday, (lit.) Sun-day”
• Q. apacenya “of foresight”
• Q. attalya “biped, *(lit.) two-footed”
• ᴺQ. cantalya “four-legged, quadruped, (lit.) four-footed”
• Q. -carya “doing” ✧ PE17/068
• Q. Eärenya “Sea-day, *Thursday”
• Q. elenya “adjective referring to the stars, *of the stars, stellar”
• Q. entya “central, middle”
• Q. firya “mortal; human, [ᴹQ.] human; [Q.] mortal”
• Q. Isilya “*Monday, Moon-day”
• Q. -matya “-eating” ✧ PE17/068
• Q. Menelya “*Wednesday, Heavens-day”
• Q. minya “first; eminent, prominent”
• Q. Narya “(Ring) of Fire”
• Q. Nenya “(Ring) of Water”
• ᴺQ. ruimenya “fireside, by the fire”
• Q. tatya “second”
• Q. tercenya “of insight”
• Q. Valanya “*Friday, Vala-day”
• Q. Vilya “(Ring) of Air”

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
✶-ı̯ā > -ya	[-jā] > [-ja]	✧ PE17/068

Variations

• -ya ✧ PE17/068 (-ya)

yen

daughter

yen, yendë noun "daughter" (YŌ/YON). This word replaced another form, but this form may have been restored; see yeldë. In VT45:16, yendë is said to refer to a female "agent", a word changed by Tolkien from yendi, but Tolkien deleted all of this.