-ul

suffix. of

ul

ugly

ul- (hideous) (only found as the initial element of names, like Ulwarth). See HIDEOUS.

ul

ugly

(hideous) *(only found as the initial element of names, like Ulwarth)*. See

lorn

noun. quiet water

lorn

noun. anchorage, harbour

nan

preposition. of

nen

noun. water (used of a lake, pool or lesser river)

nen

noun. waterland

nen

water

{ĕ}_ n. _water, lake. Q. nén. >> nîn

ogol

bad

_ adj. _bad, evil, wrong. Q. olca bad, wicked. oklā << ōklā. >> oew, ogron

thu

bad

_adj. _bad. >> thugar. This gloss was rejected.

uin

preposition. of the

en

of the

e- (sg. genitival article)

faeg

bad

*faeg (poor, mean). No distinct pl. form. (Suggested Sindarin form of ”Noldorin” foeg.)

faeg

bad

(poor, mean). No distinct pl. form. (Suggested Sindarin form of ”Noldorin” foeg.)

lorn

quiet water

(anchorage, haven, harbour), pl. lyrn (VT45:29).

nên

water

nên (lake, pool, stream, waterland), construct nen, pl. nîn. FLOOD-WATER (or ”wash”) iôl (pl. ŷl) (RC:334, VT48:33).

nên

water

(lake, pool, stream, waterland), construct nen, pl. nîn.

o

from

(od), followed by hard mutation; with article uin ”from the, of the” (followed by mixed mutation according to David Salo’s reconstuctuons). (WJ:366) Not to be confused with o ”about, concerning” (q.v. for this meaning of ”of”). 2) na (followed by lenition), with article nan (followed by ”mixed mutation”, according to David Salo’s reconstruction). The preposition has various meanings: ”with, by, near” and also ”to, toward, at; of” 3)

ol-

verb. to pour

uil-

verb. to rain

ulu

ulmo

but ”usually” this Vala was called Guiar or **Uiar **(LR:392 s.v.

um

bad

um (evil), pl. ym. David Salo would read *ûm with a long vowel. (According to VT46:20, it may be that um is intended as a base rather than as a ”Noldorin” word.)

um

bad

(evil), pl. ym. David Salo would read ✱ûm with a long vowel. *(According to VT46:20, it may be that um is intended as a base rather than as a ”Noldorin” word.)*

a(n)

preposition. of

eil-

verb. to rain

An impersonal verb appearing as N. eil “it is raining” in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from primitive ᴹ✶ulyā- (> œil > eil) under the root ᴹ√ULU “pour, flow” (Ety/ULU; EtyAC/ULU). This verb is abnormal in that its final a disappeared rather than surviving as it usually did for derived verbs, giving eil rather than ✱elia-, ✱eilia- or ✱eila-. However, as an impersonal verb there would never be any pronominal suffix to help preserve the final a by analogy, which explains the vowel loss.

Conceptual Development: The verb for “rain” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s was G. ubra-, probably related to G. ub “wet, moist, damp” (GL/74).

Neo-Sindarin: In Sindarin, the likely development of primitive ✶ulyā would be to ✱oly(a) > ᴺS. uil “it rains”; I believe this form was first suggested by Helge Fauskanger in his Parviphith Edhellen wordlist. Compare ᴺS. uil to: S. ruin “fiery red” < (perhaps) ✱runyā and S. fuir “north” < (perhaps) ✱phoryā, and see the entry on how [[s|[œi] became [ui] or [y]]] for further discussion. Any inflected forms would probably restore the stem, such as (hypothetical) intransitive past and future forms ✱eilias “it rained” and ✱eiliatha “it will rain”).

lhorn

noun. quiet water

lhorn

noun. anchorage, harbour

nan

preposition. of

nen

noun. water (used of a lake, pool or lesser river)

nen

noun. waterland

nen

noun. water

núron

masculine name. Ulmo

A Noldorin name for Ulmo appearing only in The Etymologies from the 1930s (Ety/NU), apparently a masculinized form of nûr “deep” and with the suffix -on.

uiar

masculine name. Ulmo

Noldorin name of ᴹQ. Ulmo from The Etymologies from the 1930s (Ety/WAY), also appearing as Guiar (Ety/ULU), derived from the primitive form ᴹ✶Wāyārō.

Conceptual Development: In the Gnomish Lexicon from the 1910s, his name was given as G. Gulma (GL/18, 43), but appears as Ulm or Ulum in “Official Name List” for the Lost Tales (PE13/101). In the Lays of Beleriand from the 1920s, his name was first given as Gulma but was revised to ᴱN. Ylmir (LB/93), a form that reappeared in the earliest Silmarillion drafts (SM/13).

ul-

prefix. *ugly

um

adjective. bad, evil

nen

root. water, water, [ᴱ√] flow

A root connected to water and (to a lesser extent) rivers for much of Tolkien’s life. It first appearance was as ᴱ√NENE “flow” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, though Tolkien marked both the root and the gloss with a “?”; it had derivatives like ᴱQ. nen “river, †water” and ᴱQ. nēnu “yellow water lily” (QL/65). Under this entry Tolkien noted that “nen water is perhaps different from nen river, which is from neře” (QL/65); elsewhere in QL Tolkien gave ᴱ√NERE² or ᴱ√NEŘE [NEÐE] as the basis for nen (nend-) “river”, a root he said was often confused with ᴱ√NESE “give to feed; feed, pasture; graze” (QL/66). In the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon he had G. nenn “(1) water, (2) river” and G. nendil “water fay” which were probably a blending of NENE and NEÐE, as well as G. nern “brook” from ✱nere¹ (GL/60), probably corresponding to ᴱ√NERE² from QL.

In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien had unglossed ᴹ√NEN with derivatives like ᴹQ. nén/N. nen “water” and ᴹQ. nelle “brook” (Ety/NEN), whereas ᴱ√NERE² and ᴱ√NEÐE from the 1910s seems to have been abandoned. The primitive form √NEN or nē̆n “water” continued to appear regularly in Tolkien’s writings from the 1940s, 50s and 60s (PE17/52, 167; PE19/102; PE21/64, 79).

nenda

noun. water

nē̆n

noun. water

ros-

verb. to rain

rossētā-

verb. to rain

ul-

verb. to pour

-o

suffix. of

Nénar

water

Nénar noun name of a star (or planet), evidently derived from nén "water" (Silm), tentatively identified with Uranus (MR:435)

Uinen

water

Uinen (Uinend-, as in dative Uinenden) fem. name, used of a Maia, spouse of Ossë (UY, NEN). Adopted and adapted from Valarin (WJ:404), though it is also said that it contains -nen "water" (SA:nen); the latter explanation may be folk etymology. In the Etymologies, the name is derived from the same stem (UY) as uilë "long trailing plant, especially seaweed".

nén

water

nén (nen-) noun "water" (NEN).

nén

noun. water, water, [ᴱQ.] river

The word for “water”, a derivative of the root √NEN of the same meaning (PE17/52; Ety/NEN). Its stem form was nen- (Ety/NEN) and its primitive form was given as ✶nē̆n, the vowel length variation due to distinct subjective nēn versus objective/inflected nĕn- in ancient monosyllables (PE21/64).

Conceptual Development: This word first appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with two senses: “river” and (archaic) “†water”. Tolkien indicated the two senses were based on distinct roots: ᴱ√NEŘE [NEÐE] and ᴱ√NENE respectively, with two distinct stem forms nend- and nēn (QL/64-65). The Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa also mentions the forms nen (nēn-) “water” versus nen(d-) “river” (PME/64-65). In the English-Qenya Dictionary of the mid-1920s Tolkien had both nēn “river” (PE15/76) and nēn “water” (PE15/78), but in the Early Qenya Grammar he had only nēn “water” (PE14/43, 72), also appearing as nen “water” in documents on The Valmaric Script from this period (PE14/110).

In the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s, Tolkien had ᴹQ. nēn “water”, but in this document it had nēn- with long ē in its inflected forms as well (PE21/23). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, however, uninflected nén “water” had a stem form of nen- with short e (Ety/NEN), and the reasons for this variation was discussed in Primitive Quendian Structure: Final Consonants from 1936, the nominative/objective distinction noted above (PE21/64). This seems to be the paradigm Tolkien stuck with thereafter, as evidenced by S. nen “water” rather than ✱✱nîn.

ul-

verb. to rain

An impersonal verb for “rain” attested only in its future form uluva “it is going to rain, it will rain” (PE22/167). Its aorist form is probably ✱ule “[it] rains”, its past form probably ✱úle “[it] rained”, and its perfect ✱úlie “[it] has rained”; as an impersonal verb, no explicit subject is required in Quenya. It is clearly derived from the root √UL “pour (out), flow” (WJ/400; PE17/168) and it seems that its primitive form originally meant “pour” (PE22/133), but elsewhere Tolkien gave the Quenya verb for “pour, flow” as ulya- (Ety/ULU).

Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, the verb for “it rains” was (3rd-singular) ᴱQ. uqin from the early root ᴱ√UQU “wet” (QL/98). This verb reappeared as uqe or úqe “it rains” in the Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s, having become an impersonal verb (PE14/56, 85). Another impersonal verb for “to rain” appeared in the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) from 1948: ᴹQ. kelya “(it) sends running down = it rains” from the root √KEL (PE22/114). The form uluva mentioned above appeared in Late Notes on Verbs from 1969 (PE22/167).

Neo-Eldarin: Based on attested forms I would limit ul- for “rain” as an impersonal verb only, and for “pour” would use ulya-. Interestingly, the Noldorin word for “rain” is eil [ᴺS. uil] from ᴹ✶ulyā-, so I think Quenya and Sindarin/Noldorin made different choices for which ancient verb became impersonal “rain”.

ul-

verb. pour; rain

urra

adjective. bad

ú-

prefix. bad, uneasy, hard