nik(w)

root. (also of) snow, ice, snow, ice; *white

This root was used for Elvish words for “white” and “snow” for much of Tolkien’s life. It first appeared as ᴱ√NIQI “white” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. niqis “snow” and ᴱQ. ninqe “white” (QL/66), the latter surviving more or less unchanged for the rest of Tolkien’s life. In the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon it had derivatives like G. nictha- “to rain, hail, snow” and G. nimp “pallid” (GL/60), the latter the cognate of ᴱQ. ninqe and another word that survived in Tolkien’s later conceptions of the languages.

The root appeared as unglossed ᴹ√NIK-W in The Etymologies, again with ᴹQ. ninqe “white” and N. nimp “pale” and other similar words, including ᴹQ. niqe “snow” (Ety/NIK-W). The root was mentioned again in Tolkien’s later writing as √NIK-W (PE17/160) or √NIK (PE17/168) as a basis for “snow” words. In Sindarin Tolkien felt it was influenced by other roots, such as √(N)DIP/B “bending and drooping” (PE17/168) or √NIP “small with a connotation of weakness” (VT48/18) so that S. nimp also took on a connotation of weakness and frailty, and hence was used for “pale, pallid” rather than simply “white”.

Derivatives

• ✶ninkwi “white, pale” ✧ PE17/168
  • Q. ninquë “white; chill, cold; pallid”
  • S. nim “white” ✧ PE17/168
  • At. nimbi “white”
  • S. nim “white” ✧ PE17/019
  • T. nimbi “white”
• Q. ninquë “white; chill, cold; pallid” ✧ PE17/168
• Q. niqu- “to be chill, cold, freeze (of weather), snow” ✧ PE17/168
• Q. niquë “cold, cold; [ᴹQ.] snow” ✧ PE17/168
• Q. niquis “snowflake, ice-flake; petal (loose) of a white flower; frost-patterns, snowflake, ice-flake; petal (loose) of a white flower; frost-patterns, [ᴱQ.] snow” ✧ PE17/168
• Q. nixë “frost; ice-flake or snow-flake” ✧ PE17/168
• ᴺS. nich “frost”
• S. nimp “pale, pallid, white, pale, pallid, white; small and frail, [ᴱN.] wan, sickly” ✧ PE17/168
  • S. nim “white” ✧ SA/nim
• ᴺS. nítha- “to snow, hail, rain”

Variations

• NIK ✧ PE17/160; PE17/168
• NIKW ✧ PE17/160