A word for “sharp-eye” (likely an adjective = “sharp-eyed”) appearing in a discussion of the name Maeglin, a combination of dual hendu “pair of eyes” and maica “sharp” (WJ/337).
Quenya
hendumaica
sharp-eye
hendumaica
adjective. sharp-eye[d]
Cognates
- S. maecheneb “sharp-eye[d]” ✧ WJ/337
Elements
Word Gloss hen “eye” maica “sharp, piercing” Variations
- hendumaika ✧ WJ/337
maica
sharp, piercing
maica (1) ("k")adj. "sharp, piercing" (SA:maeg), cf. hendumaica and the noun maica below.
aica
sharp
aica (1) ("k") adj. "sharp" _(AYAK) or "fell, terrible, dire" (PM:347; according to PM:363 seldom applied to evil things)_. In Aicanáro, q.v.
hen
eye
hen (hend-, as in pl. hendi) noun "eye" (KHEN-D-E); possibly dual #hendu in hendumaica, q.v. Noun henfanwa "eye-screen, veil upon eyes" (PE17:176), adj. henulca "evileyed" (SD:68; cf. ulca).
hen
noun. eye
The Quenya word for “eye”, derived from the root √KHEN for eye-words (PE17/187; Ety/KHEN-D-E) and with stem-form hend- given its dual hendu (WJ/337).
Conceptual Development: This word first appeared as ᴱQ. hen in The Qenya Phonology of the 1910s, derived from primitive ᴱ✶þχe-ndǝ and appearing beside ᴱQ. sé “eye, pupil” < ᴱ✶þeχē (PE12/21). Hen (hend-) “eye” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon though it was marked “†” for archaic (QL/40), and ᴱQ. hend- also appeared in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon as the cognate of G. hen “eye” (GL/48). ᴱQ. hen appeared regularly in documents from the 1920s (PE13/147; PE14/43, 76; PE16/136), although in the Early Noldorin Grammar of the 1920s ᴱQ. sinda was given as the cognate of ᴱN. hen(n) “eye” (PE13/122). The form ᴱQ. sinda seems to have been a transient idea.
A lengthy declension of ᴹQ. hen “eye” appeared in documents from the early 1930s (PE21/52) and in The Etymologies of the 1930s it was based on a new the root ᴹ√KHEN-D-E “eye” (Ety/KHEN-D-E). In both these documents, inflected forms indicate a stem form of hend-. Thus this word and its stem were quite stable in Tolkien’s mind, though he did alter its root from early ᴱ√SEHE [ÞEHE] to later √KHEN.
Cognates
- S. hen(d) “eye”
Derivations
- √KHEN “base of eye-words, base of eye-words; [ᴹ√] look at, see, observe, direct gaze”
Element in
- Q. alahen “eyeless”
- ᴺQ. hencalcat “eye-glasses, spectacles”
- ᴺQ. hendelë “window”
- ᴺQ. hendelúpea cecet “peafowl, (lit.) eye-plumed pheasant”
- Q. hendumaica “sharp-eye[d]” ✧ WJ/337
- Q. henfanwa “eye-screen, veil upon eyes”
- Q. henta- “to eye, examine, read, scan”
- ᴺQ. hentópa “eyelid”
ecya
sharp
#ecya adj. "sharp" in Ecyanáro ("k") "Sharp Flame", masc. name, Sindarin Aegnor(VT41:14, 19). The Quenya form of Aegnor is elsewhere given as Aicanáro instead.
nerca
sharp, angular
nerca adj. "sharp, angular" (PE17:55), variant nexa (reading uncertain).
nexa
sharp, angular
nexa adj. "sharp, angular" (PE17:55; the editor indicates that the reading is uncertain, so the variant nerca may be preferred.)
hendumaica ("k")noun? adj.? "sharp-eye" (read *"sharp-eyed"?) (WJ:337)