heleg

noun. ice

A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “ice” derived from the root ᴹ√KHELEK of the same meaning (Ety/KHELEK).

Conceptual Development: G. heleg “ice” also appeared in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s along with a variant helc, both under primitive χele-k (GL/48). This is clearly related to the early root ᴱ√HELE as first suggested by Christopher Tolkien (LT1A/Helkar; QL/39).

heleg

noun. ice

hell

noun. frost

A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “frost” derived from the root ᴹ√KHEL “freeze”, but Tolkien deleted this short root and its derivatives, keeping only the longer form ᴹ√KHELEK (Ety/KHEL).

Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had a number of similar “frost” related words: G. heloth “frost”, G. hîl {“ice-cold, icy” >>} “frost” as well as G. helfileg “frost on panes, etc.” (GL/48-49), all based on the early root ᴱ√HELE “freeze”, the last with the added element G. fileg “fern”.

Neo-Sindarin: Tolkien probably deleted N. hell “frost” because he abandoned the short root ᴹ√KHEL, but short √KHEL did reappear in later writings (PE17/116), so it is tempting to restore hell “frost” as well. However, this conflicts with other attested words like N. hell “naked”, so I think it is better to use a neologism like ᴺS. nich for “frost”; see that entry for discussion.

helcë

ice

helcë ("k") noun "ice" (KHELEK, LT1:254)

niquessë

noun. frost-patterns; snowflake, ice-flake; (lit.) chill feather

A noun literally meaning “chill feather”, but variously used for “frost-patterns” (WJ/417) or “snowflake, ice-flake” (PE17/168). It originated as a variant of niquis (niquiss-) where the second element was modified by association with quessë “feather”.

niquis

noun. snowflake, ice-flake; petal (loose) of a white flower; frost-patterns, snowflake, ice-flake; petal (loose) of a white flower; frost-patterns, [ᴱQ.] snow

A noun in the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60 glossed “frost-patterns” (WJ/417). It also appeared in some etymological notes from around 1959 with the stem forms niquiss- or niquits-, where it was derived from the root √NIK(W) (PE17/168). In those 1959 notes it was glossed “ice-flake or snowflake — also petal (loose) of a white flower”. In both documents, it had a variant form niquessë of similar meaning, where the second element was modified by association with quessë “feather”, thus literally “chill feather” (WJ/417; PE17/168).

Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. niqis (niqiss-) “snow” under the early root ᴱ√NIQI “white” (QL/66).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I’d mostly use niquis(s-) for “snowflake” or “ice-flake”, and metaphorically for the loose petal of a white flower. I’d use the variant niquessë for “frost pattern” and more loosely for “snowflake”. For “frost” itself I’d use nixë. This is mainly to help differentiate these otherwise very similar words.

nixë

noun. frost; ice-flake or snow-flake

A noun in the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60 glossed “frost” (WJ/417). It also appeared in some etymological notes from around 1959 as a variant of niquis “ice-flake or snowflake” under the root √NIK(W) (PE17/168).

Conceptual Development: The word for “frost” was ᴹQ. helor in the Declension of Nouns of the early 1930s and ᴹQ. helle in The Etymologies of the mid-to-late 1930s, both based on the short root ᴹ√KHEL “freeze” (Ety/KHEL). In The Etymologies Tolkien deleted this short root and its derivatives, retaining only longer ᴹ√KHELEK, and in later writings Tolkien seems to have decided “frost” was based on √NIK(W) instead.

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I’d limit nixë to “frost” and use niquis for “snowflake” to help differentiate the two words.

helca

icy, ice-cold

helca ("k")adj. "icy, ice-cold" (misprint "helk" in the Etymologies as printed in LR, entry KHELEK; both the Silmarillion Appendix and LT1:254 have helka, and VT45:21 finally confirmed that there is a final -a in Tolkien's Etymologies manuscript as well). In Helcar, the Inland Sea in the north-east of Middle-earth, and Helcaraxë, the Grinding Ice between Araman and Middle-earth_ (SA; spelt "Helkarakse" in the Etymologies, stem KARAK)_

helcelimbë

ice-drop

helcelimbë ("k") noun *"ice-drop"? (LIB1, cf. KHELEK)

helluin

proper name. ?Ice or Sky Blue

The name of the blue star Sirius (S/64, SI/Helluin). Its final element is almost certainly luinë “blue” (SA/luin), but the meaning of its initial element is unclear. It may be a derivation of the root √KHEL “ice”. Alternately, it might be related to ᴹQ. helle “sky” as suggested by Elaran in a private Discord chat on 2019-02-19.

Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon from the 1910s, Sirius was named ᴱQ. Nierninwa Blue-bee” (QL/65), while in the earliest Lost Tales it was called ᴱQ. Nielluin “Bee of Azure” (LT1/182) or “Blue Bee” (LT1/200), a name that also appeared in the Qenya Lexicon (QL/65).

helca

adjective. icy, ice-cold

helquir

noun. ice cream

A neologism for “ice cream” attributed to Christopher Gilson and recorded on the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord server (VLDS) on 2022-08-18 as a combination of [ᴹQ.] helcë “ice” with [ᴱQ.] quirmë “cream”.

nixë

frost

nixë noun "frost" (WJ:417); previously described as a synonym of niquis "ice-flake or snowflake", q.v. (PE17:168)

khelek

root. ice

khel

root. ice, [ᴹ√] freeze

This root was the basis for “ice” words all the way back in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, where ᴱ√HELE appeared with variant ᴱ√HḶKḶ as the basis for words like ᴱQ. helke “ice”, ᴱQ. helka “ice-cold”, ᴱQ. halkin “frozen”, and ᴱQ. hilk- “freeze” (QL/39). The root was given as {hele-k >>} χele-k in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon with derivatives like G. hel- “freeze”, G. heleg “ice” and G. helc “ice-cold, icy, cold” (GL/48). The Gnomish forms do not show the kinds of vowel-variations that would indicate the presence of ancient syllabic Ḷ, so perhaps Tolkien had abandoned ᴱ√HḶKḶ by that point.

The root reappeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as ᴹ√KHEL “freeze” and extended root ᴹ√KHELEK “ice”, with the reappearance of many derived forms as well such as ᴹQ. helke/N. heleg “ice” and ᴹQ. helka/N. helch “ice-cold” (Ety/KHEL). Tolkien’s continued use of words like Q. Helcaraxë “Grinding Ice” indicate the ongoing validity of the extended root √KHELEK (S/134), and the shorter root √KHEL “ice” appeared in later notes of the origin of S. Forochel (PE17/116).

nik(w)

root. (also of) snow, ice, snow, ice; *white

This root was used for Elvish words for “white” and “snow” for much of Tolkien’s life. It first appeared as ᴱ√NIQI “white” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. niqis “snow” and ᴱQ. ninqe “white” (QL/66), the latter surviving more or less unchanged for the rest of Tolkien’s life. In the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon it had derivatives like G. nictha- “to rain, hail, snow” and G. nimp “pallid” (GL/60), the latter the cognate of ᴱQ. ninqe and another word that survived in Tolkien’s later conceptions of the languages.

The root appeared as unglossed ᴹ√NIK-W in The Etymologies, again with ᴹQ. ninqe “white” and N. nimp “pale” and other similar words, including ᴹQ. niqe “snow” (Ety/NIK-W). The root was mentioned again in Tolkien’s later writing as √NIK-W (PE17/160) or √NIK (PE17/168) as a basis for “snow” words. In Sindarin Tolkien felt it was influenced by other roots, such as √(N)DIP/B “bending and drooping” (PE17/168) or √NIP “small with a connotation of weakness” (VT48/18) so that S. nimp also took on a connotation of weakness and frailty, and hence was used for “pale, pallid” rather than simply “white”.

heleg

ice

1) heleg (i cheleg, o cheleg), pl. helig (i chelig), 2) (a mass of ice) gochel (i **ochel), pl. gechil (i ngechil = i ñechil), coll. pl. gochellath**. Archaic pl. *göchil.

gochel

ice

(i ’ochel), pl. gechil (i ngechil = i ñechil), coll. pl. gochellath. Archaic pl. ✱göchil.

heleg

ice

(i cheleg, o cheleg), pl. helig (i chelig)

nich

noun. frost

A neologism for “frost”, cognate of Q. nixë of the same meaning (WJ/417), that assumes a phonetic development similar to that of S. ach vs. Q. akse (axë) “neck” (PE17/92); see the entry on how [[os|[p], [t], [k] spirantalized before [s]]] in (Old) Sindarin.

hell

9j¸$ noun. frost