inga (1) noun "top, highest point" (PM:340), "only applied to shapes pointing upwards...[it] referred primarily to position and could be used of tops relatively broad". Compounded in the nouns aldinga "tree-top" (alda + inga) (VT47:28), ingaran "high-king" (PM:340)
Quenya
inga
first
inga
top, highest point
inga
noun. top, highest point, top, highest point, [ᴹQ.] first
A word have the same root (√ING) as the name Ingwë, giving a clue to the original meaning of that name. In a few places, the plural Ingar of this word was used as another name for the Vanyar (MR/230, 265), but Tolkien more frequently used the plural Ingwë for this purpose: see Ingwi.
In later writings, this word was generally presented as a noun meaning “top, highest point” (PM/340, VT47/28), but in The Etymologies, ᴹQ. inga was an adjective glossed “first”, as in “foremost” (Ety/ING).
Tolkien stated that “inga ... applied to shapes pointing upward” but also that it “referred primarily to position and could be used of tops relatively broad” (VT47/28). Therefore, inga referred to the highest level whether it was a single point or a plateau.
Derivations
- √ING “highest, top, highest, top; [ᴹ√] first, foremost” ✧ PM/340
Element in
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √ing- > inga [iŋga] ✧ PM/340
ingaran
high-king
ingaran noun "high-king" (PM:340), compounded from inga and aran
ingaran
noun. high-king
Elements
Word Gloss inga “top, highest point, top, highest point, [ᴹQ.] first” aran “king”
minya
first
minya adj. "first" (MINI) (cf. Minyatur, Minyon); "eminent, prominent" (VT42:24, 25). Minyar "Firsts", the original name of the Vanyar (or rather the direct Quenya descendant of the original Primitive Quendian name) (WJ:380)
enna
first
[enna adj. "first" (VT45:12)]
esta
first
esta (2) adj. "first" (ESE/ESET); this entry was marked with a query. The word Yestarë (q.v.) "Beginning-day" in LotR suggests that Tolkien decided to change the stem in question to _YESE/YESET_. We could then read *yesta for esta (but later this became a noun "beginning" rather than an adj. "first", PE17:120) and also prefix a y to the other words derived from ESE/ESET (essë* > yessë, essëa > yessëa). Estanossë noun "the firstborn", read likewise Yestanossë** (*Yestanessi?) but in a later text, Tolkien used Minnónar (q.v.) for "the Firstborn" as a name of the Elves, and this form may be preferred. _(In the Etymologies as printed in LR, the word _Estanossë is cited as "Estanesse", but according to VT45:12, the second-to-last vowel is actually o in Tolkien's manuscript.)
setta
first
[setta, setya adj. "first" (possibly also "primary", but Tolkien's gloss was not certainly legible) (VT46:13)]
ingëa
adjective. top
@@@ Discord 2022-05-23
Elements
Word Gloss inga “top, highest point, top, highest point, [ᴹQ.] first”
inga (2) adj. "first" (ING)