A noun for “herb” appearing in Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957, a combination of the roots √LAY and √KWĒ (PE17/159). Tolkien specified that it was used for “anything green, but especially [herbs] as used for food”.
Quenya
laiquë
herb
laiquë
noun. herb
Element in
- ᴺQ. laiquelis “rue (plant)”
empanya-
plant
*empanya- vb. "plant" (deduced from the "Qenya" pl. past tense empannen, VT27:20-22)
ala-
plant, grow
ala- (4) vb. "plant, grow" _(the first gloss would suggest that the following one is transitive: to "grow" plants) (PE17:100). _Compare al- "thrive, *grow" (which however seems intransitive).
laima
plant
laima noun "plant" (PE17:159). Cf. olvar.
laima
noun. plant
A noun for “plant” appearing in Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 derived from the root √LAY (PE17/159).
Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. laute (lausi-) “living thing, (esp.) vegetable” and ᴱQ. lauke (lauki-) “vegetable, plant species”, both derived from the early root ᴱ√LAWA (QL/52). The word lauke also appeared in the contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa with the gloss “plant” (PME/52) and appeared again in Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s with the gloss “vegetable” and an accusative form of lautya (PE16/141), indicating a new stem form lauty-.
Derivations
- √LAY “*be alive, flourish, [ᴱ√] be alive, flourish” ✧ PE17/159
Element in
- ᴺQ. laimamatta “vegetable food, (lit.) plant food”
- ᴺQ. laimamatya “herbivorous, vegetarian, (lit.) plant-eating”
- ᴺQ. nastalaima “thistle, (lit.) spear plant”
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √LAY > laima [laima] ✧ PE17/159
laiquë noun "herb" ("anything green, but especially as used for food") (PE17:159)