oron (oront-, as in pl. oronti) noun "mountain" (ÓROT; the root occurs in orotinga, q.v.) Oron Oiolossë "Mount Everwhite" (WJ:403)
Quenya
oron
noun. mountain
Derivations
- ᴹ√OROT “height, mountain”
Element in
- Q. Oron Oiolossë “Mount Everwhite” ✧ WJ/403
Variations
- Oron ✧ WJ/403
oron
mountain
oro
noun. mount, mountain, hill
An element meaning “mountain” or “hill” given as a derivative of √ORO/RŌ (PE17/64, 83) and appearing in various Quenya compounds in the 1950s and 60s: Q. Orocarni “Red Mountains” (MR/77), Q. Orofarnë “Mountain Ash” (PE17/83), Q. oromandi “mountain dweller[s]” (PE16/96), and Q. Pelóri “Mountain Wall” (PE17/26). It also appeared as ᴱQ. oro “hill” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as a derivative of the early root ᴱ√ORO (QL/70).
See the discussion in the entry for Q. oron “mountain” for more details on the conceptual developments of this and related words.
Derivations
- √RŌ/ORO “up(wards); rise (up), go high, mount, up(wards); rise (up), go high, mount; [ᴹ√] high, [ᴱ√] steepness, rising” ✧ PE17/063
Element in
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √OR/ORO > oro [oro] ✧ PE17/063
orotinga
noun. mountain-top
A word in notes from the late 1960s glossed “mountain-top” whose final element was Q. inga “top” (VT47/28). Its initial element is probably a variant of Q. orto “mountain”.
Elements
Word Gloss orto “mount, mountain, hill, [ᴹQ.] mountain-top; [Q.] mount, mountain” inga “top, highest point, top, highest point, [ᴹQ.] first”
orto
noun. mount, mountain, hill, [ᴹQ.] mountain-top; [Q.] mount, mountain
A word meaning “mount, mountain” given as a derivative of √ORO/RŌ in Notes on Galadriel’s Song (NGS) from the late 1950s or early 1960s (PE17/64). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, ᴹQ. orto “mountain-top” appeared as a derivative of the root ᴹ√OROT (Ety/ÓROT).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I think it is best to use orto with its 1930s sense “mountain-top”, and use Q. oron for “mountain”; see that entry for more details on the conceptual developments of this and related words.
Cognates
- S. orod “mountain” ✧ PE17/064
Derivations
Element in
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √OR/ORO > orto [orto] ✧ PE17/063
oro
mount, mountain
oro (1) noun "mount, mountain" (PE17:64), cf. Qenya oro noun "hill" (LT1:256; rather ambo in LotR-style Quenya, though #oro "mountain, hill" appears in Orocarni and orofarnë, q.v. [PE17:83], also with the meaning "high" in oromar, q.v.) Cf. oro- element "up, aloft" (PE17:64).
orotinga
mountain-top
orotinga noun "mountain-top" (VT47:28). Cf. ingor.
orto
mountain-top
orto noun "mountain-top" (ÓROT), "mount, mountain" (PE17:64)
rassë
noun. horn, horn [of both animals and mountains]
A noun appearing as ᴹQ. rasse “horn” in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from the root ᴹ√RAS “stick up” along with a variant form rasko (Ety/RAS). In that document Tolkien said it was used “especially on living animal, but also applied to mountains”. The word rasse “horn” reappeared on a (rejected) page of verb forms from 1948 (PE22/127 note #152), and again in notes from the 1950s or 60s discussing the mountain name S. Caradhras (PE17/36).
Cognates
- S. rass “horn, horn [of both animals and mountains]” ✧ PE17/036
Derivations
- √RAS “horn, horn; [ᴹ√] stick up”
Element in
- Q. Arfanyarassë “High Shining White Peak”
- ᴺQ. rassëa “horned”
- ᴺQ. rassemunda “rhinoceros, (lit.) horn-snout”
Variations
- rasse ✧ PE17/036
Orocarni
the red mountains
Orocarni noun "the Red Mountains", place-name: literally rather *"Mountain-Reds": a plural form of carnë "red" with the element oro- "mountain" or "high" prefixed (Silm)
rassë
horn
rassë, also rasco, noun "horn" (especially on living animal, but also applied to mountains) (RAS/VT46:10, PM:69)
cas
head
cas ("k")"head" (VT49:17), cf. also deleted [cas] ("k")noun "top, summit" (VT45:19). This noun should evidently have the stem-form car-. See cár.
cas
noun. head, head, [ᴱQ.] top, summit
This is the Quenya word for “head”, with a stem form of car- because medial s generally became z and then r, but the s was preserved when final. This word can refer to the head of people and animals, as well as the metaphorical “head” (or top) of other things, in much the same way that Q. tál “foot” can refer to their base.
Conceptual Development: This word was established very early in Tolkien’s writing, being derived from the root ᴱ√KASA “head” all the way back in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/45), but its exact form varied as Tolkien changed his mind on the phonetic development of s in Quenya. Its form in the Qenya Lexicon was in fact ᴱQ. kar (kas-), since in Early Qenya period medial s survived and it was final s that became r (PE12/26). This kar (kas-) was the usual word for head in the 1910s and 20s, but in the typescript version of the Early Qenya Grammar Tolkien instead revised it to ᴱQ. kas (kast-) “head” (PE14/72 and note #5).
In noun declensions from the late 1920s and early 1930s, Tolkien instead had cas (car-), reflecting a conceptual shift in the phonologic development of s (PE13/112-113; PE21/22). However, for reasons unclear, the form ᴹQ. kár (kas-) was restored in The Etymologies written around 1937 under the root ᴹ√KAS “head” (Ety/KEM), despite s > z > r being the normal medial phonetic development in this period (PE19/33). This abnormal form slipped into The Lord of the Rings itself as part of the name Q. Eldacar “Elfhelm” (LotR/1038).
Tolkien generally used the form cas for “head” in his later writings (PE19/103; VT49/17), but in his notes on Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings from the late 1950s or early 1960s, Tolkien was forced to contrive another explanation for Eldacar:
> What is -kar in names. How could it stand for helm? E.g. as stem ✱kāsā (√KAS, head) would give kāra, but in compound forms -kāsă > -kas. Would not an ă be lost before voicing of s or at least before z > r (PE17/114).
In this note Tolkien considered having Q. carma “helm” < kas-mā, but discarded the idea since he felt karma “tool or weapon” < KAR “do, make” + mā was the more likely meaning. He then said “Eldă|kāzā in compounds to -kār(ă) > -kar” despite its phonological implausibility, and indeed kāza/kára appeared in a discussion of helms within 1964 notes on Dalath Dirnen (DD: PE17/188).
As for the sense “top”, there is better evidence for it among Tolkien’s earlier writings, such as the glosses “head, top” in Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s (PE14/79) and the early-1930s allative form kasta “up (to the top)” (PE21/22). I see no reason to assume this alternate meaning did not survive in Tolkien’s later conception of the language.
Derivations
Element in
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ✶kāza > kára [kāsa] > [kāza] > [kāra] ✧ PE17/188 Variations
- kára ✧ PE17/188
- kas ✧ PE19/103; VT49/17
cár
head
cár (cas-) ("k")noun "head" (KAS).The given stem-form appears doubtful within the phonological framework of LotR-style Quenya. Probably we should read cas with stem car- (PE14:69 indeed reads "kas head, pl. kari", and VT49:17 quotes the sg. "kas" from a post-LotR source). Compare other forms found in late sources: hlas "ear" with stem hlar- (PE17:62) and olos "dream", pl. olori (UT:396). In Tolkiens early "Qenya", post-vocalic -s became -r at the end of words but was preserved when another vowel followed. His later scheme either lets -r appear in both positions, or reverses the scenario altogether (hence olos, olor-). It would seem that the forms cár, cas- were distractedly carried over into the Etymologies from the Qenya Lexicon (kar, kas-, QL:45) even though they presuppose an earlier version of the phonology. An apparent variant form in late material, cára from earlier cáza ("k"), however fits the later phonology since intervocalic s would become z > r (PE17:188).
cára
noun. head
romba
horn, trumpet
romba noun "horn, trumpet" (ROM)
róma
horn
róma (1) noun "horn" (WJ:368 - this refers to a "horn" as an instrument rather than as part of an animal; see rassë, tarca_)._Loose compound Oromë róma "an Oromë horn", sc. "one of Orome's horns (if he had more than one)" (WJ:368).
róma
noun. horn, horn; [ᴹQ.] loud sound, trumpet-sound, *blare
Derivations
- √ROM “horn noise, horn noise; [ᴹ√] loud noise”
Element in
- Q. Orome róma “an Orome horn” ✧ WJ/368
- Q. róma Oromëo “a horn coming from Orome” ✧ WJ/368
- Q. róma Oroméva “Orome’s horn” ✧ WJ/368
- Q. Valaróma “Horn of Oromë, *(lit.) Vala-horn”
tarca
horn
tarca ("k")noun "horn" (TARÁK)
taru
horn
taru noun "horn" (LT2:337, 347; Tolkien's later Quenya has tarca)
tárië
height
tárië noun "height", allative tárienna "to [the] height" (LotR3:VI ch. 4, translated in Letters:308)
tárië
noun. height
Element in
- Q. a laita tárienna “bless (or praise) [them] to the height” ✧ Let/448; LotR/0953
Elements
Word Gloss tára “lofty, tall, high” -ië “abstract noun, adverb”
A word for “mountain” in Quenya whose stem form was oront-, so that it’s plural would be oronti (Ety/Ety/ÓROT).
Conceptual Development: There were a number of competing “mountain” words in Quenya of similar derivation, all based on the root √ORO “rise”; its Sindarin cognate S. orod “mountain” was much more stable in form. The earliest iteration of these Quenya words was ᴱQ. oro “hill” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as a derivative of the early root ᴱ√ORO, unglossed but with other derivatives like ᴱQ. oro- “rise” and ᴱQ. orto- “raise” (QL/70). The word oro “hill” also appeared in the Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa from this period, alongside a variant form oron(d) of the same meaning (PME/70).
The variant oron reappeared in the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s, now with the gloss “mountain” (PE21/33); its inflected forms indicate a stem form of {orom- >>} orum- (PE21/34 and note #125). ᴹQ. oron “mountain” appeared again in The Etymologies of the 1930s as a derivative of the root ᴹ√OROT, this time with a stem form oront- as indicated by its plural oronti (Ety/ÓROT). Oron appeared once more in the name Q. Oron Oiolossë “Mount Everwhite” from the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60 (WJ/403).
In Notes on Galadriel’s Song (NGS) from the late 1950s or early 1960s Tolkien gave the variant forms oro, orto “mountain” as derivatives of √ORO/RŌ “rise, mount” (PE17/63-64). ᴹQ. orto had previously appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as a derivative of the root ᴹ√OROT but with the gloss “mountain-top” (Ety/ÓROT). Hints of this earlier meaning can be seen in the 1968 word Q. orotinga “mountain-top” though in this compound the second element Q. inga also means “top” (VT47/28). Orto “mountain” may be the final element of the 1968 name Q. Tarmacorto “High Mountain Circle”, but more likely the last element is derivative of √KOR “round”, perhaps ✱Q. corto “circle” (NM/351).
As for oro, it meant “mountain” as an element in many late names: Q. Orocarni “Red Mountains” (MR/77), Q. Orofarnë “Mountain Ash” (PE17/83), Q. oromandi “mountain dweller[s]” (PE16/96), and Q. Pelóri “Mountain Wall” (PE17/26), though in one place Tolkien glossed the prefix oro- as “hill” (PE17/83), perhaps a callback to its meaning in the 1910s.
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I feel oron(t) for “mountain” is better established among Neo-Quenya writers; it is the form used in Helge Fauskanger’s NQNT (NQNT), for example. The word Q. orto was not used for “mountain” until quite late, and I would stick with its 1930s meaning “mountain-top”. As for Q. oro, I would use it as “mountain” only in compounds, not as an independent word.