malta noun "gold", also name of tengwa #18 (Appendix E). The Etymologies (entry SMAL) instead has malda, q.v. for discussion, but according to VT46:14, the form malta originally appeared in the Etymologies as well. Also compare the root MALAT listed in PM:366.
Quenya
malta
noun. gold (metal), gold as material
malta
gold
malda
yellow, of golden colour
malda adj. "yellow, of golden colour" (PE17:51), variant of malina. An earlier source (the Etymologies, entry SMAL) has malda as the noun "gold" but LotR gives malta, q.v., and according to VT46:14 the form malta originally appeared in the Etymologies as well. Since Quenya sometimes uses adjectives as nouns (see for instance fanya), malda could still be regarded as a valid side-form of the noun malta "gold".
marta
fate
marta (3) noun "fate" (VT45:33, VT46:13) Cf. marto.
malina
yellow
malina adj. "yellow" (SMAL, Letters:308), "yellow, of golden colour" (PE17:51). Malinalda *"Yellow-tree", a name of Laurelin (SA:mal-; evidently malina + alda), translated "Tree of Gold" in the Silmarillion index. Cf. also malinornë.
culo
gold
[culo, culu ("k")noun "gold" (substance)] (KUL, VT49:47; the word culu_ also occurred in early "Qenya" [LT1:258], but in the Etymologies it was struck out; the regular Quenya word for "gold" is apparently _malta. In another version, culo meant "flame" [VT45:24], but this is apparently also a word Tolkien abandoned.)
umbar
fate, doom
umbar (umbart-, as in dat.sg. umbarten) noun "fate, doom" (MBARAT), also name of tengwa #6 (Appendix E).Cf. Umbarto. In the pre-classical Tengwar system presupposed in the Etymologies, umbar was the name of letter #18 (VT45:33), which tengwa Tolkien would later call malta instead changing its Quenya value from mb to m. In the word Tarumbar "King of the World" (q.v.), umbar appears to be a variant of Ambar (q.v.) instead.
Tar-culu
gold
Tar-culu ("k"), name listed in the Etymologies but not elsewhere attested. The second element is apparently culu "gold" (a word Tolkien seems to have abandoned); Hostetter and Wynne suggest that this may be an alternative name of Tar-Calion (= Ar-Pharazôn "the Golden"); see VT45:24.
amarto
fate
amarto noun "Fate" (also ambar) (LT2:348; in LotR-style Quenya rather umbar, umbart-)
ambar
fate, doom
ambar (2) noun "fate, doom" (variant of umbar?) in Turambar (SA:amarth); stem ambart- (PE17:66), instrumental ambartanen "by doom" (Silm ch. 21, UT:138, PE17:66). The early "Qenya" lexicon has ambar "Fate", also amarto (LT2:348)
laurë
gold
†laurë noun "gold", but of golden light and colour, not of the metal: "golden light" (according to PE17:61 a poetic word). Nai laurë lantuva parmastanna lúmissen tengwiesto "may (a) golden light fall on your book at the times of your reading" (VT49:47). In Etym defined as "light of the golden Tree Laurelin, gold", not properly used of the metal gold (LÁWAR/GLÁWAR, GLAW(-R), VT27:20, 27, PE17:159). In early "Qenya", however, laurë was defined as "(the mystic name of) gold" (LT1:255, 258) or simply "gold" (LT1:248, 268). In Laurelin and Laurefindil, q.v., Laurenandë "Gold-valley" = Lórien (the land, not the Vala) (UT:253) and laurinquë name of a tree, possibly *"Gold-full one" (UT:168). Laurendon "like gold" or "in gold fashion" (but after citing this form, Tolkien decided to abandon the similative ending -ndon, PE17:58).
tulca
yellow
tulca (3) ("k") adj. "yellow". Adopted and adapted from Valarin; the normal Quenya word for "yellow" is rather malina (WJ:399)
A noun for “gold” appearing in Appendix F of The Lord of the Rings, also used as the name of tengwa #18 [t] (LotR/1123). In private notes on The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien specified that it was “gold metal” or “gold as material”, as opposed to laurë which was golden light or gold as a color (PE17/50-51, 159).
Conceptual Development: In Tolkien’s writings in the 1910s he had ᴱQ. laure as the mystical or magical name of gold as opposed to ordinary “gold” which was ᴱQ. kulu (LT1/100). The word ᴹQ. kulu “gold” survived until The Etymologies of the 1930s, but there its root ᴹ√KUL was redefined to refer to the color “golden-red” (Ety/KUL). Tolkien introduced a new word {malta >>} ᴹQ. malda for “gold (as metal)” derived from the root ᴹ√SMAL “yellow” (Ety/SMAL; EtyAC/SMAL). In notes on The Feanorian Alphabet from the 1940s Tolkien had the form ᴹQ. malta “gold” (PE22/50), and he seems to have kept that form thereafter. At some point he revised the root to √MALAT “gold” as well (PM/366).