Primitive elvish
delya-
verb. walk, go, proceed, travel
Derivations
- √DEL “walk, go, proceed, travel” ✧ WJ/360
Derivatives
- T. delia- “to go, proceed” ✧ WJ/360
Variations
- del-ja ✧ WJ/360
delya-
verb. ?thick, thicken & congeal
Derivations
- √
DEL“thick, dense” ✧ PE17/017Derivatives
- Q.
nelya-“to thicken, congeal” ✧ PE17/017Variations
delta/delya✧ PE17/017 (delta/delya)
del
root. walk, go, proceed, travel
Derivatives
Variations
- DELE ✧ WJ/360
- DEL ✧ WJ/363
- del ✧ WJ/363
- Dele ✧ WJ/392
This root appears in the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60 with the sense “walk, go, proceed, travel” (WJ/360). Its derivatives were S. Edhel “Elf” and Q. †Eldo which blended with Elda “Elf”, both originally with the sense “one who goes” (✶edelō): those who left lake Cuiviénen to travel to Valinor. It is also the basis of several words meaning “to go”: T. delia- and Q. lelya-.
Many of Quenya derivatives of this root actually derive from an inversion √LED of the original √DEL. According to the Quendi and Eldar essay, this inversion only occurred in Quenya (WJ/363). In earlier writings like The Etymologies, however, ᴹ√LED “go, fare, travel” was the basic root in all languages. It seems that Tolkien revised ᴹ√LED >> √DEL, preserving √LED only as a Quenya variant. The strongest sign of this change was Tolkien’s consistent alteration of N. Eledh >> S. Edhel.
This leaves open the question of what happened to the other non-Quenya derivatives of ᴹ√LED, such as S. edlen(n) “exile”. It is possible that they were transferred to a new root √LEN, which was the basis for S. lembas “way bread” (PE17/60).