mīrĭ

noun/adjective. precious, precious thing

kanat

root. four

This root was established as the basis for “four” very early, though the earliest known Elvish word for “four” was actually ᴱQ. nelde from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/65), which became “three” later on (PE14/49). In the Gnomish Lexicon written soon after, the Gnomish word for “four” was G. cant (GL/25), and by the Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s, the Qenya word likewise became ᴱQ. kanta “four” (PE14/49, 82). The Quenya word kept this form thereafter, and the Noldorin form became N. canad in The Etymologies of the 1930s, where the root ᴹ√KANAT “four” explicitly appeared for the first time (Ety/KÁNAT). The words and root for “four” remained the same thereafter (VT42/24-26; VT47/15-16; VT48/10), with occasional minor (and transient) variations such as √KENET (VT47/41).

kanatā

cardinal. four

ler

root. free

A root appearing twice in a list of roots from 1959-60, the first time described as “free (of moveable things or moving things), able to move as willed, unimpeded, unhampered, loose, not fixed fast or static” and the second time as “am free to do, sc., am under no restraint (physical or other)” (VT41/5-6). In the second instance it was compared to √POL which had the sense of being physically able to do something. It seems that √LER = “able to do something because there is nothing preventing it” vs. √POL = “able to something because of physical ability”. It might also be contrasted with √LEK which has the sense of freeing something that was once bound, whereas with √LER the thing that is free may have never been bound in the first place.

ray

root. smile