A fairly common feminine suffix appearing as -il in Sindarin, either formed on its own or as a variant of the feminine suffix -iel. This suffix was also common Noldorin words in The Etymologies of the 1930s, along with an alternate form -ril that seems to be a feminine agental suffix, the equivalent of masculine -(r)on, seen in pairs like N. melethril/melethron “lover” and N. odhril/odhron “parent” (Ety/MEL, ONO). The -il suffix and its -ril variant are seen all the way back in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s in pairs like G. gwadhril/gwadhron “inhabitant” (GL/47) and G. ainil/ainos “god”, female and male respectively (GL/18). So it seems this feminine suffix was well established in Tolkien’s mind.
Quenya
-a
suffix. adjectival suffix
Derivations
- ✶-ā “adjectival”
Element in
- Q. airëa “holy (applied to persons)” ✧ PE17/149
- ᴺQ. aitalëa “reverent, worshipful, religious”
- Q. Aldëa “*Tuesday, Tree-day (Númenórean)”
- Q. amaurëa “dawn, early day, morning” ✧ MC/223
- Q. andúna “western”
- ᴺQ. aurëa “sunny, sunlit; *daytime”
- Q. endëa “middle”
- Q. eressëa “lonely” ✧ LotR/1116
- Q. fínëa “dexterous”
- Q. ilaurëa “*daily”
- Q. ilyarëa “*daily”
- Q. ilucara “omnificent” ✧ VT39/20
- Q. laurëa “golden (of hue)”
- Q. lillassëa “having many leaves”
- Q. lilótëa “having many flowers”
- Q. lómëa “shadowed, gloomy, shadowed, gloomy, *dusk-like”
- Q. mírëa “jewelled, jewelled, *gemmed”
- Q. nieninquëa “like a snowdrop” ✧ PE16/096
- Q. nöa “former; yesterday; tomorrow, yesterday; former, *previous; tomorrow”
- ᴺQ. nornolassëa “having oak-leaves”
- Q. núla “dark, occult, mysterious”
- Q. oialëa “eternal”
- Q. rávëa “roaring”
- Q. taurëa “forested”
- Q. túrëa “mighty, masterful, mighty, masterful, *having political power” ✧ PE17/115
- Q. úfanwëa “not veiled, unveiled”
- Q. úpahtëa “speechless”
- Q. vëa “seeming, apparent, seeming, apparent; [ᴱQ.] similar, like”
- Q. yaimëa “wailing”
This suffix is frequently used to create the adjective form of a noun, especially in the form -ëa for nouns ending in -ë. This function dates back to CE. ✶-ā.