lís ("lîs")noun "honey", "oblique līr- but usually from stem liss-" (PE17:154). Compare the reading in the Etymologies: lis (liss-, e.g. dat.sg. lissen) (LIS; Tolkien originally wrote lissë, VT45:28)
Quenya
lissë
noun. grace
Cognates
- ᴺS. list “grace, favour, kindness”
Derivations
- √LIS “*sweet, [ᴱ√] sweetness, [ᴹ√] honey”
Element in
- Q. Amillë Eruva lissëo “Mother of divine grace” ✧ VT44/18
- Q. Erulissë “[God’s] Grace”
- ᴺQ. laiquelis “rue (plant)”
- ᴺQ. vendelis “nun”
lissë
sweet
lissë
adjective. sweet
Cognates
Derivations
Element in
- ᴺQ. lisselë “sweetness”
- Q. mi oromardi lissë miruvóreva “of the sweet mead in lofty halls” ✧ LotR/0377; RGEO/58
- Q. lissë miruvóreva mí oromardi “of sweet nectar in the high-halls” ✧ RGEO/58
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ✶lissĭ- > lisse [lissi] > [lisse] ✧ PE17/154 Variations
- lissë ✧ LotR/0377
- lisse ✧ PE17/064; PE17/064; PE17/154; RGEO/58
- lísse ✧ RGEO/58
lís
lîs
lís
noun. honey, honey, *sugar, sweetener
A word for “honey” in Definitive Linguistic Notes (DLN) from 1959 given as lîs and derived from the root √(G)LIS (PE17/154); the usual representation of a long vowel in Quenya would be ✱lís. In DLN Tolkien said that it sometimes appeared as līr- in inflections with the usual change of intervocalic s to r, but that its usual stem form was liss-. Indeed, in The Etymologies of the 1930s this word was ᴹQ. lis “honey” under the root ᴹ√LIS of the same meaning, and its stem form was also liss- as indicated by its [ᴹQ.] genitive lissen (Ety/LIS). Tolkien originally gave the base noun as lisse in The Etymologies, but this was deleted and replaced by lis (EtyAC/LIS). In The Etymologies its Noldorin cognate was N. glî.
Conceptual Development: A likely precursor to this word was ᴱQ. ile “honey” in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s, cognate to ᴱN. glí “honey” (GL/59).
Neo-Quenya: Since there are other honey-words in Quenya like Q. nehtë, I would use lís (liss-) for sweeteners in general, including both honey and sugar.
Derivations
- √LIS “*sweet, [ᴱ√] sweetness, [ᴹ√] honey” ✧ PE17/154
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √(G)LIS > lîs [līs] ✧ PE17/154 Variations
- lîs ✧ PE17/154
melu
honey
#melu noun "honey", isolated from melumatya, q.v. (PE17:68)
melu
noun. honey
A word for “honey” appearing only in the compound Q. melumatya “honey-eating” in notes from 1967 (PE17/68).
Element in
- Q. melumatya “honey-eating” ✧ PE17/068
- ᴺQ. meluquetya “sweet-speaking person, flatterer”
nectë
honey
nectë noun "honey" (LT1:262; Tolkien's later Quenya has lis; otherwise, nectë would have had to become nehtë_, a form appearing in the Etymologies with the meaning "honeycomb" [VT45:38]. However, this word clashes with _nehtë "angle" or "spearhead, gore, wedge, narrow promontory" from later sources [PE17:55, UT:282].)
nehte
noun. honey
honey
nehtë
noun. honey, honey; [ᴹQ.] honeycomb
A noun for “honey” appearing in 1970 green-ink revisions to the Outline of Phonology (OP2) derived from ✶negdē “exudation” based on the root √NEG “ooze, drip” (PE19/91). It was a later iteration of ᴹQ. nehte “honeycomb” in The Etymologies of the 1930s which had essentially the same derivation (EtyAC/NEG). This in turn was a later form of ᴱQ. nekte “honey” from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s derived from the early root ᴱ√NEHE having to do with bees and honey (QL/65).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I’d use this word only for “honey”. For “honeycomb” I’d use ᴺQ. nehtelë inspired by ᴱQ. nektele “honeycomb” (QL/65)
Cognates
Derivations
Element in
- ᴺQ. nehtelë “honeycomb”
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ✶negdē > nehte [negdē] > [nektē] > [nextē] > [nexte] ✧ PE19/091 Variations
- nehte ✧ PE19/091
lissë adj. "sweet" (Nam, RGEO:66); also noun "sweetness", used metaphorically for "grace" (VT43:29, VT44:18); in this sense the word may be compounded as #Erulissë, q.v. Genitive lissëo in VT44:18. - In the entry LIS in the Etymologies, Tolkien originally gave lissë as the noun "honey", but then changed it to lis with stem liss- (VT45:28)