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).

khelek

root. ice

kalak

root. glass

A root appearing in etymological notes from 1968 glossed “glass” with Quenya and Telerin derivatives Q./T. calca of the same meaning (VT47/35). It seems to be a late restoration of the much earlier root ᴱ√kail(i)k or ᴱ√tail(i)k that was the basis of “glass” words in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s; in this early period the Qenya derivatives began with t- and the Gnomish derivatives with c- [k-] (GL/25). It may also have replaced Q. cilin (< ✱√KILIN?) from the late 1950s or early 1960s (PE17/37). Given its Quenya/Telerin derivatives, √KALAK was probably coined in Aman as was also the case with earlier Q. cilin, since the Sindarin word for “glass” is the unrelated word S. heledh borrowed from Khuzdul (PE17/37).