Primitive elvish
it
root. glitter, shine, shimmer, twinkle
Changes
- IT → IT “glitter” ✧ PE17/112
Derivatives
Element in
Variations
- IT ✧ PE17/112 (IT); PE17/156; PE17/156
- ƷIT ✧ PE17/155 (ƷIT); PE17/156 (ƷIT)
- ITH ✧ PE17/156
- IS ✧ PE17/156 (IS)
- it ✧ PM/363
it
root. repeat, multiply; (great) enhancement
Derivatives
Element in
Variations
- IT ✧ PE17/112 (IT); PE17/112; PE17/156
ith
root. glitter, shine, shimmer, twinkle
san-
noun. that
Derivatives
- S. san “that” ✧ PE17/042
se
pronoun. he, she, it, 3rd person singular pronoun
Derivatives
Element in
- ✶sē tuli, tuli sḗ, āse tuli! “let him come! etc.” ✧ PE22/140; PE22/140; PE22/140
- ✶-syā “his, her, its” ✧ VT49/17
Variations
- sḗ ✧ PE22/140
- sē ✧ PE22/140
- SE ✧ VT48/24
- s(e) ✧ VT49/17
- -sĕ ✧ VT49/20
- se/te ✧ VT49/50
Tolkien (re)introduced the root √IT in 1957 to address a problem he had with the etymology of the name S. Idril. In The Etymologies of the 1930s, he based this name on the root ᴹ√ID “✱desire”, and gave it the form Idhril (Ety/ID). The problem was that in the narratives, he continued to use the form Idril, which could not be derived from √ID. In Notes on Names (NN) he wrote in 1957, he introduced the root √IT to provide a new etymology for Idril, giving the root various meanings such as “(great) enhancement”, “gleaming”, “repeat, multiply” and “glitter, shine, shimmer, twinkle” (PE17/112, 156), along with alternate forms ITH, IS and ƷIT (PE17/156). He seems to have settled on √IT and the last of the listed meanings, since in The Shibboleth of Fëanor written in 1968 Tolkien said her Quenya name was Q. Itarillë based on ita- “to sparkle”, appearing with various other it- words of similar meaning (PM/346, 348 and 363 note #42).
The root √IT was basically a reversion to the original basis for the name G. Idril, which in the 1910s seems to have been based on a (hypothetical) root ✱ᴱ√ITI meaning something like “precious”. For the effects of these revisions on other roots, see the discussion in the entry for √IR “desire”.