Quenya 

loico

corpse, dead body

loico noun "corpse, dead body" (so in Markirya; Etym also has quelet of similar meaning)

loico

noun. corpse, dead body

A word for “corpse, dead body” in the 1960s version of the Markirya poem (MC/223). It may be related to noirë “tomb” via an unattested root (N)DOY as suggested by David Salo in a post on the Elfling mailing list in 2012.

Conceptual Development: In the version of the poem from around 1930, Tolkien used the word ᴱQ. kaivo “corpse” (MC/214, 221), probably based on the early root ᴱ√KAYA “lie, rest; dwell” (QL/46).

caivo

corpse

caivo _("k")_noun "corpse" (MC:221; Tolkien's later Quenya has loico or quelet)

quelet

corpse

quelet ("q") (quelets-, as in pl. queletsi) noun "corpse" (KWEL; Markirya also has loico)

Noldorin 

daen

noun. corpse

Noldorin [Ety/375] Group: SINDICT. Published by

daen

noun. corpse

A noun for “corpse” in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from ON. ndagno under the root ᴹ√NDAK “slay” (Ety/NDAK), where the g vocalized to i before n and then ai became ae.

Conceptual Development: There were a couple of unrelated “corpse” words in Tolkien’s earlier writings. G. cweleg “corpse, dead body” appeared in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s based on G. cwel- “fade, wither” (GL/28), clearly the equivalent of contemporaneous ᴱQ. qelet (qelekt-) of the same meaning (QL/76). ᴱN. rhanc “corpse, body of one slain in battle” appeared in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s related to the verb rhengi (rhang-) “to slay in battle” (PE13/152).

Noldorin [Ety/NDAK] Group: Eldamo. Published by

Sindarin 

daen

corpse

daen (i naen, o ndaen), same in pl. except with article (i ndaen)

daen

corpse

(i naen, o ndaen), same in pl. except with article (i ndaen)


Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!

Gnomish

cweleg

noun. corpse, dead body

Early Quenya

kaivo

noun. corpse

Early Quenya [MC/214; MC/221; PE16/062; PE16/072; PE16/074; PE16/075; PE16/077; PE16/079] Group: Eldamo. Published by

qelet

noun. corpse

Early Quenya [QL/076] Group: Eldamo. Published by

Qenya 

qelet

noun. corpse

A noun for “corpse” in The Etymologies written around 1937 derived from primitive ᴹ✶kwelett- under the root ᴹ√KWEL “fade (away)” (Ety/KWEL). It had a plural form qeletsi indicating a stem form of qelets-, but that is inconsistent with its attested primitive form; its plural may instead be a conceptual remnant of the Early Qenya sound change whereby [[eq|[ti] became [tsi]]] (PE12/23).

Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. qelet “corpse” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√QELE “perish, die, decay, fade”, but there its stem form was qelekt- (QL/76). ᴹQ. qelet “corpse” reappeared in the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s, but there its stem form seems to be qelet- (PE21/33, 35). Its early 1930s nominative plural qeletsin also shows ti > tsi (PE21/35).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I’d assume a stem form quelett- (and plural queletti) consistent with its primitive form. If the stem form was quelets-, then the uninflected form would be ✱✱queles, since final -ts became -s (PE19/104).

Qenya [Ety/KWEL; PE21/33; PE21/35] Group: Eldamo. Published by

Middle Primitive Elvish

kwelett-

noun. corpse

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/KWEL] Group: Eldamo. Published by