Primitive elvish
mat
root. eat
Derivatives
- ✶ammat- “to devour, eat up” ✧ PE18/085; PE18/088
- ✶
amtā✧ PE18/085; PE18/087
- Q. anta “jaw” ✧ PE18/085
- ✶maita- “to feed” ✧ PE18/095
- ✶mammata- “to gobble up, devour” ✧ PE22/136
- Q. mammata- “to gobble up; to go on eating, gorge oneself, to go on eating, gorge oneself; to gobble up, [ᴹQ.] devour”
- ✶masta- “to feed up, fatten” ✧ PE18/095
- ᴺS. masta- “to [put to] feed, graze”
- ✶mat- “to eat”
- ✶matwā
- S. maud “[unglossed]” ✧ PE17/148
- ✶matyā- “to feed”
- Q. anto “mouth, mouth [as a thing for eating]; [ᴱQ.] jaw”
- Q. maita “hungry” ✧ VT39/11
- Q. mat- “to eat” ✧ VT39/07
- ᴺS. mâd “meal”
- ᴺS. mast “fodder, feed, food, nourishment”
- ᴺS. math “food”
Element in
- ᴺ✶. wāmāt “*community, (lit.) eating-together”
Variations
- mata ✧ VT39/05
- MATA ✧ VT39/07
mat-
verb. to eat
Derivations
- √MAT “eat”
Derivatives
Element in
Variations
- mata ✧ VT39/09
mā
noun. hand
Derivations
- ✶maha “hand, the manager” ✧ PE19/074; PE19/102; VT47/06; VT47/07; VT47/35
- √MAH “handle, manage, control, wield; serve, be of use, handle, manage, control, wield; serve, be of use; [ᴹ√] hand; [ᴱ√] grasp” ✧ PE21/70
- √MAG “good (physically); to thrive, be in a good state, good (physically); to thrive, be in a good state; [ᴹ√] use, handle” ✧ VT47/18
Derivatives
Element in
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ✶maʒa > mā [maɣa] > [mā] ✧ VT47/06 Variations
- māh ✧ PE19/102
- mâ ✧ VT47/18; VT47/34 (mâ)
poli
noun. meal
Derivations
- √POL “can, have physical power and ability; large, big (strong); pound up, break up small, reduce to powder, can, have physical power and ability; large, big (strong); [ᴹ√] physically strong, [ᴱ√] have stength; [√] pound up, break up small, reduce to powder”
Derivatives
- Q. polë “meal, grist, meal, grist, [ᴱQ.] oats, grain (unground kernels of oats, wheat, etc.)”
Variations
- polĭ ✧ PE21/80
This was the root for eating words for all of Tolkien’s life, appearing very regularly. It was ᴱ√MATA “eat” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/59), ᴹ√MAT “eat” in The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/MAT), and √MAT “eat” in etymological notes from the late 1960s (VT48/26), among its many other appearances. This puts it among the most conceptually stable of Elvish roots.