Middle Primitive Elvish
mori
adjective. black
Derivations
- ᴹ√MOR “*black, dark” ✧ Ety/MOR
Derivatives
Element in
- ᴹ✶morikwende “Dark-elf”
mǭri
noun. blackness, dark, night
Derivations
- ᴹ√MOR “*black, dark” ✧ Ety/MOR
Derivatives
doʒ
root. night
Derivatives
- Ilk. daum “night-time, gloom” ✧ Ety/DOƷ
- ᴹ✶doʒmē ✧ Ety/DOMO
- ᴹQ. ló “night, a night” ✧ Ety/DOƷ; EtyAC/LOƷ
- ᴹQ. lóme “night, night-time, shades of night, gloom” ✧ Ety/DOƷ; Ety/LUM
- Ad. lômi “(pleasant) night” ✧ SD/415
- ᴹQ. lóna “dark” ✧ Ety/DOƷ
- N. dû “night, night-fall, late evening” ✧ Ety/DOƷ; Ety/DYEL; Ety/DOMO
- N. dúlin(n) “nightingale” ✧ Ety/DOƷ
- N. dûr “dark” ✧ Ety/DOƷ
- On. doume “night-time, gloom” ✧ Ety/DOƷ
- N. daw “night-time, gloom” ✧ Ety/DOƷ
Element in
Variations
- DOƷ/DÔ ✧ Ety/DOƷ
- DOG ✧ Ety/UÑG
- LOƷ ✧ EtyAC/LOƷ (
LOƷ)- DAW ✧ EtyAC/LOƷ (
DAW)
A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “night” that (along with ᴹ√DOM) was the basis for the ᴹQ. lóme/N. dû “night” (Ety/DOƷ). It replaced some rejected variants ᴹ√LOƷ and ᴹ√DAW (EtyAC/LOƷ). Many of the derivatives of ᴹ√DOƷ were later assigned to other roots: N. dûr “dark” became S. dûr “dark” < √NDU “under, down” in notes from the late 1950s or early 1960s (PE17/152) and ᴹQ. lóna “dark” became Q. lúna (PE17/22). There are no signs of ᴹQ. ló “night” and N. daw “night-time, gloom” in Tolkien’s later writing. Future derivations of Q. lómë/S. dû only mention the root √DOM (PE17/152; PE22/153) and thus ᴹ√DOƷ may have been abandoned.
In a message to the Elfling mailing list from July 2012 (Elfling/362.96), David Salo suggested there might be a later root ✱√DU serving as the basis for Q. lúna “dark” and Q. lúmë “darkness”, though the latter might instead be from √LUM. Such a root ✱√DU is not attested in Tolkien writings, but if it existed, it could be a later iteration of ᴹ√DOƷ. Another possible example of the root ✱√DU is primitive ✶durnŭ “dark of hue”.