liþi

root. *flow of time

A root for various words in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s having to do with the flow of time, such as G. lith- “go, depart, be over, finish, end, die”, G. lithin “bygone, ended”, and G. lint “quick, agile, nimble, light” (GL/54), as well as G. laith “time, the course of time; lapse”, and G. laith(r)a- “let slip, lose, mislay, forget; (intr.) to be lost” (GL/52). The last of these was “a confusion of two distinct roots - see lech and lith-”, referring to ᴱ√lech “smooth, slippery” whose derivatives included laitha- “slip (intr.), slide by” (GL/53).

lhith

noun. dust

lith-

verb. to go, depart, be over, finish, end, die

A verb in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “go, depart, be over, finish, end, die” (GL/54). The early root ᴱ√lith- also seems to have been related to time (see G. laith “time, the course of time”), so the meaning of this verb may have originally been exclusively temporal, only later spatial.

marol

noun. sand

A noun with variants marol and mara in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “sand”, probably a derivative of the root ᴱ√MARA (GL/56); see the entry on the root for further discussion. In later writings, Tolkien used N. lith for “sand”.

mara

noun. sand

thith

noun. dust

A noun in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “dust”, appearing below other forms like G. thisin “parched, withered” (GL/73). The latter is clearly a cognate of ᴱQ. sisin from the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon, and hence is derived from the root ᴱ√SISI as it appeared in that document (QL/84), though its Gnomish derivatives make it clear the actual root was ✱ᴱ√ÞISI.

litthe

noun. sand

litse

noun. sand

A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “sand” derived from the root ᴹ√LIT (Ety/ERE). Its Noldorin cognate N. lith was in later writings glossed as S. lith “ash”, so it is possible this word also shifted in meaning, but Helge Fauskanger used the neologism ᴺQ. littë for “ash” in his NQNT (NQNT) to keep the two words distinct, an approach that I also advocate.

asto

noun. dust

A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “dust” derived from the root ᴹ√ÁS-AT (Ety/ÁS-AT). It was also mentioned in The Feanorian Alphabet from the late 1930s with the same form and meaning (PE22/21-22), and in the revisions of that document from the 1940s, though there it was replaced with ᴹQ. osto as a name for one of the tengwar (PE22/50). This replacement may only have to do with tengwar names, and doesn’t necessarily invalidate asto “dust”.

mulo

noun. dust, dust, [ᴱQ.] fine powder

A word in the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s glossed “dust”, given as an example of declensions for nouns that in ancient times ended with short -ŭ: mulǔ- (PE21/10-11). It is probably a later iteration of ᴱQ. mul (muld-) “fine powder” from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, a derivative of the early root ᴱ√MULU “grind (fine)” (QL/63). In notes from the late 1950s or early 1960s, Tolkien gave Q. mulë for “meal” = “✱coarsely ground flour”, so it seems ✱√MUL “grind” either survived or was restored. For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I think it is appropriate to use this word with the earlier sense “fine powder” as well.

litse

noun. sand

ere-

verb. to go

A deleted verb in Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s with present form ere “goes” and past tense erne “went”, perhaps based on the early root ᴱ√ERE [EÐE] “out” as suggested by the editors (PE16/133).

marma

noun. sand

A noun in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “sand”, a derivative of the root ᴱ√MṚŘṚ [MṚÐṚ] (QL/63). The word was also mentioned in the Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa (PME/63). In later writings, ᴹQ. litse was used for “sand” (Ety/LIT).

tie-

verb. to go

A deleted verb in Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s, probably related to ᴱQ. tie “path” and the early root ᴱ√TEHE as suggested by the editors (PE16/133).

tyusse

noun. sand

A word for “sand” from Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s (PE16/139). Its etymology is unclear, and none of the words from this period with similar forms seem to be related.