cuilë

life, being alive

cuilë ("k")noun "life, being alive" (KUY)

cuivië

noun. life

coirë

stirring

coirë noun "stirring", in the calendar of Imladris a precisely defined period of 54 days (Appendix D), but translated "the first day of Spring" in the Silmarillion Appendix (SA:cuivië). Early "Qenya" has coirë ("k")"life" (LT1:257; in Tolkien's later Quenya, the word for "life" is cuilë or coivië; however, cf. the adj. coirëa from a late source).

coivë

noun. life

coivië

life

coivië _("k")_noun "life" (coivierya, *"his/her life", VT49:41, 42). In early material, the word is glossed "awakening" instead (LT1:257; in LotR-style Quenya cuivië, as in Cuiviénen)

coivië

noun. life, life, [ᴱQ.] liveliness; awakening

The usual word for “life” in Tolkien’s later writings based on the root √KOY (NM/84, 119; VT49/42), in one place appearing with the variant koive (PE17/68). In another place Tolkien instead used kuivie for “life” in the phrase kuivie-lankasse “on the brink of life”, reflecting Tolkien’s ongoing vacillation between √KOY and √KUY as the root for life.

Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. koivie was “awakening” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/48) as reflected in the name ᴱQ. Koivie-néni “Waters of Awakening” from this period (QL/48), but the word was glossed “liveliness” in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon (GL/29). The noun for “life, being alive” was ᴹQ. kuile in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√KUY “come to life, awake” (Ety/KUY), but was usually coivie in Tolkien’s writings from the 1950s and 60s, as noted above.

Neo-Quenya: I prefer √KOY as the root for “life” for purposes of Neo-Eldarin, so I’d use coivie as the noun “life, liveliness”, and use cuivië for “awakening” as seen in the later form of the name Q. Cuiviénen “Water of Awakening” (S/48).

Derivations

• √KOY “*live, have life, [ᴹ√] live, have life”

Element in

• ᴺQ. coivenqua “lively, vibrant, vivacious, (lit.) full of life”
• Q. cuivië-lancassë “on the brink of life” ✧ VT42/08
• Q. nai amanya onnalya ter coivierya “*may your (sg.) child be blessed throughout his/her life” ✧ VT49/42
• Q. nai calambar onnalda ter coivierya “*may your (pl.) child be light-fated throughout his/her life” ✧ VT49/42

Variations

• koive ✧ PE17/068
• koivie ✧ PE17/068
• kuivie ✧ VT42/08

coi

life

coi ("k")"life" (LT1:257; in Tolkien's later Quenya cuilë)

cuil

life

cuil (i guil, o chuil), no distinct pl. form except with article (i chuil)

cuil

life

(i guil, o chuil), no distinct pl. form except with article (i chuil)

echuir

stirring, season of

. No distinct pl. form.

cuil

noun. life

cuil

noun. life, life, [G.] lifetime

A noun for “life” in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√KUY “come to life, awake” (Ety/KUY).

Conceptual Development: This word dates back to the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, where Tolkien clarified that G. cuil “life” was “usually [the] quality of being alive, but [was] also used = lifetime” (GL/27). ᴱN. cuil “life” also appeared in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s (PE13/141).

Cognates

• ᴹQ. kuile “life, being alive” ✧ Ety/KUY

Derivations

• ᴹ√KUY “come to life, awake” ✧ Ety/KUY

Element in

• ᴺS. cuileb “lively, alive”
• ᴺS. cuilvorn “lifetime”

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ√KUY > cuil	[kujle] > [kuile] > [kuil]	✧ Ety/KUY