ele

root. drive, push, thrust, send forth

A root in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “drive, push, thrust, send forth”, with derivatives like “spear” and “thrust” (QL/35). It was also the basis for the rootᴱ√LEHE “come, be sent, approach” (QL/52). There are indications in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon that Tolkien gradually gave up this root: he first gave the forms G. elta- “to thrust, dig, poke (inward)” and G. elt “a dig, a poke (probe)”, then apparently revised them to G. elta-/eltha- “draw, tug, lug” and G. elt “a tug, lug”, representing a semantic shift from “push” to “pull” (GL/32).

These Gnomish forms were all eventually deleted and replaced by G. eltha- “to alter, change” and G. elt “a change”. These replacements are sufficiently distinct in meaning that I think they represent the introduction of a new root ✱ᴱ√ELE connected to “wonder” and “otherness”; see that entry for details. Meanwhile, it seems the Gnomish “thrust” words were transferred to the root ᴱ√ḶTḶ, as in G. ilta- “to stick in, prod, prick” (GL/51).

ele Speculative

root. ?wonder

A hypothetical early root serving as the basis for Gnomish words having to do with “otherness”, such as G. eleg “other”, G. elfel “different, like something else” and possibly also eltha- “to alter, change”, though the last word seems to have been part of a separate etymological paradigm (GL/32). This collection of words also included G. elm “wonder” and elma- “marvel at, admire”. Similar forms appeared in the 1920s: ᴱN. elvennai “wonderful, marvelous” and ᴱN. elven “wonder, wonderment”, the latter with a Qenya cognate ᴱQ. elmenda (PE13/143, 161).

Some of this sense of wonderment may have resurfaced in the root √EL in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60, where Tolkien said of ELE that “according to Elvish legend this was a primitive exclamation, ‘lo! behold!’ made by the Elves when they first saw the stars” (WJ/360). On this basis, I think it worth concocting an extended Neo-Eldarin root ᴺ√ELEM “wonder, marvel” to salvage the “wonder” words from the 1920s. It might also be worthwhile to concoct an extended root ᴺ√ELEK “different, strange; other” to salvage Gnomish “other” words from the 1910s, but that one is more of a stretch and I no longer recommend its use. Neologisms based on later roots serve better for that purpose.

miqi

root. kiss

The root ᴱ√MIQI “kiss” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. miq- “to kiss” and ᴱQ. miqele “kissing” (QL/61). Derivatives also appeared in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. mib “a little kiss, a peck” and G. mictha- “kiss, bill” (GL/57). The word ᴱQ. miqilitse “little or tender kiss” appeared in the ᴱQ. Nieninqe poem from the 1920s (MC/215; PE16/90, 92). Tolkien created a new version of this poem in 1955 and reused many of the same words, including Q. mikwi- “kiss” and Q. miquelis “(soft, sweet) kiss” (PE16/96); the latter also appeared as ᴹQ. miqilis “kiss” in the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s (PE21/33). These later examples support the ongoing validity of this root, perhaps as ✱√MIKW.

alakya-

verb. to shield, ward off, protect

lefe

root. half

lehe

root. half

muru

root. slumber

A root in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “slumber”, with derivatives like ᴱQ. murme “slumber, sleep” and ᴱQ. muru- “to slumber” (QL/63). In the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon it had derivatives like G. maur “a dream, vision” and G. murtha- “dream” (GL/57-58). In Tolkien’s later writing sleep and dream words were mostly derived from √LOR.