kim

root. edge, brink of

Tolkien used the root √KIM and similar roots for a wide variety of purposes throughout his life. Perhaps the earliest of these was the Early Qenya word ᴱQ. kim- “heed” from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, but all of its Gnomish cognates begin with g-, as in G. gima- “hear” and G. gimri “hearkening, attention” (GL/38), so this early root was most likely ✱ᴱ√GIMI. In the Quenya Verbal System of the 1940s, Tolkien had ᴹ√KIM “light on, find, come by” and along with a verb ᴹQ. kim- of similar meaning (PE22/103, 108, 125) but most likely this meaning of the root was transferred to √KHIR and Q. hir- “find” (PE17/75).

Finally in notes from 1969 Tolkien gave √KIM “edge, brink of”, replacing deleted forms √KIL and √KILIM, with the root √KIL being reassigned the meaning “choose, select” (which seems to be the normal meaning of √KIL throughout the 1950s and 60s). Note that the early root ᴱ√KILI the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s also meant “edge”, but somewhat interestly there is a Gnomish word G. cim “blade”, perhaps indicating that this vacillation between √KIM vs. √KIL for “edge” had a longer history in Tolkien’s conceptual development of the languages.

Neo-Eldarin: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I would recommend using √KIM = “edge” and √KIL = “choose”.

Changes

• KIL → KIM ✧ PE22/149

Derivatives

• Q. címa “edge of a cutting weapon/tool” ✧ PE22/149; PE22/149
• Q. cimba “edge, brink” ✧ PE22/149; PE22/149
• ᴺS. cim “blade”

Element in

• Q. cirmacin “knife-edge” ✧ PE22/149; PE22/149 (kirmakil)

Variations

• KIL ✧ PE22/149 (KIL)
• KILIM ✧ PE22/149 (KILIM)