phaw

foa

Q. foa. >> faw

faw

foa

Q. foa. >> phaw

faug

adjective. gape, [N.] thirsty, [S.] gape

An adjective for “thirsty” appearing in names like Anfauglir “Jaws of Thirst”.

Conceptual Development: In the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s the word for “thirsty” was G. luib (GL/55) clearly based on the early root ᴱ√LOYO (QL/56). By Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s, the word had become ᴱN. faug “thirsty” (PE13/143), and N. faug “thirsty” appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√PHAU̯ “gape” (Ety/PHAU). Christopher Tolkien gave faug the gloss “gape” in The Silmarillion appendix (SI/faug), but that seems to refer to the root meaning from the 1930s.

Derivations

• √PHAW “emit (foul breath), *breath, puff of breath, breath, puff of breath; blow, emit (foul breath); [ᴹ√] gape”
  • √PHA “exhalations (as mists upon water or steams and the like)”

Element in

• S. Anfauglir “Jaws of Thirst” ✧ SA/faug
• S. Anfauglith “Gasping Dust” ✧ SA/faug
• S. Dor-nu-Fauglith “Land under Choking Ash” ✧ SA/faug

Variations

• faug- ✧ SA/faug

phaw

root. emit (foul breath), *breath, puff of breath, breath, puff of breath; blow, emit (foul breath); [ᴹ√] gape

Tracing the conceptual development of this root is difficult. Its earliest precursor might have been unglossed ᴱ√FAGA in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with the derivative ᴱQ. fâ = ᴱQ. vilna “air” (QL/37) with Gnomish cognate G. Fâ “lower airs” (GL/33). G. faf- “puff, blow, pant” may also be related (GL/33).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s, however, there was the root ᴹ√PHAU̯ “gape” with derivatives ᴹQ. fauka/N. faug “thirsty” (Ety/PHAU; EtyAC/PHAU). The Noldorin derivative was used in the names N. Anfauglin “Jaws of Thirst” (SM/115) and N. Fauglith “Thirsty Sand; Gasping Dust” (LR/132) from contemporaneous Silmarillion drafts. Sindarin variants of these names S. Anfauglir “Jaws of Thirst” (S/180) and S. Anfauglith “Gasping Dust” (S/150) continued to appear in later versions of The Silmarillion.

In Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 Tolkien gave a new gloss for the root √PHAW as “emit (foul breath etc.)” serving as the basis for Q. foalóke, unglossed but perhaps “✱breath-dragon” (PE17/181). The root √PHAW reappeared again in 1964 notes on Dalath Dirnen (DD) as the basis for Q. foa and S. faw, all unglossed (PE17/181). Finally ✶phā appeared in some notes from 1968 as an example of a primitive monosyllablic noun, with glosses “puff, (?blow)” or “breath, puff of breath” and probably-related forms fawa and foa (VT47/34-35). All these hints at a possible restoration of the sense of early ᴱ√FAGA from the 1910s: “emit (breath), puff, blow”.

Neo-Eldarin: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I think it is best to assume √PHAW had its 1950s-60s meaning “emit (breath), puff, blow”, but that ᴹQ. fauka and N. faug “thirsty” were derived from another root ✱√PHAWAK or ✱√PHAUKA, either an extension or unrelated.

Derivations

• √PHA “exhalations (as mists upon water or steams and the like)”

Derivatives

• ✶phawa
  • Q. föa “breath, puff of breath” ✧ VT47/35
• Q. föa “breath, puff of breath” ✧ PE17/181
• S. faug “gape, [N.] thirsty, [S.] gape”
• S. faw “*breath, puff of breath” ✧ PE17/181
• ᴺS. faw- “to puff, blow, pant”
  • ᴺS. faul “bladder, (orig.) inflated thing”

Element in

• ✶phawalōkō “dragon” ✧ PE17/181

Variations

• PHAW- ✧ PE17/145