Middle Primitive Elvish
lu
root. *time
Derivatives
Element in
- ᴹQ. lumenyáre “*history” ✧ Ety/NAR²
- ᴹQ. lúmeqentale “history” ✧ Ety/KWET
- ᴺQ. lussë “(verb) tense”
- ᴹQ. yalúme “former times” ✧ Ety/YA
Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!
lu
root. *time
Derivatives
Element in
- ᴹQ. lumenyáre “*history” ✧ Ety/NAR²
- ᴹQ. lúmeqentale “history” ✧ Ety/KWET
- ᴺQ. lussë “(verb) tense”
- ᴹQ. yalúme “former times” ✧ Ety/YA
luhu
root. *time
Derivatives
- Eq. lú “24 hours, day” ✧ QL/056
- Eq. luin “ago” ✧ QL/056
- Eq. luksima “fleeting, fading, temporary” ✧ QL/056
- Eq. lukta “period” ✧ QL/056
- Eq. lúme “time” ✧ QL/056
- Eq. lúmen “year, period” ✧ QL/056
- Eq. lúta- “to have time pass” ✧ QL/056; QL/056
- Eq. lunde “(lunar) month; (lit.) period” ✧ QL/056
- G. lu “occasion, time”
- G. lûtha- “to pass (of time); to come to pass, occur”
- G. luin “gone, past; ago”
- G. lûm “time”
- G. lust “weather; tide; time”
Element in
- Eq. -lukse “-times” ✧ QL/056
Variations
- LU’U ✧ QL/056 (LU’U)
This root and ones like it were the basis for time words throughout Tolkien’s life. The earliest appearance of this root was as ᴱ√LUHU or ᴱ√LU’U (the latter marked by Tolkien with a “?”) in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, unglossed but with derivatives like ᴱQ. lú “24 hours, day” and ᴱQ. lúme “time” (QL/56). It also had derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon like G. lu “occasion, time” and G. lust “time; tide; weather” (GL/55). It appeared as unglossed ᴹ√LU in The Etymologies of the 1930s with derivatives like ᴹQ. lú “a time, occasion”, ᴹQ. lúme “time”, and their Noldorin cognate N. lhû (Ety/LU).
The Etymologies had a distinct root ᴹ√ULU “pour, flow” (Ety/ULU). It was not explicity connected to ᴹ√LU in this 1930s document, but in notes from around 1959 Tolkien said lūmē “time” was derived from √ULU “flow” (PE17/168), so it is likely that √LU is an inversion of this more basic root.