nillë

silver glint

nillë ("ñ") a star-imagine on Nur-menel (q.v.), from a stem ngil- noun "silver glint" (MR:388)

nillë

noun. small [woman]

A diminutive form of nís “woman” given as nill- “small [woman]” in notes from 1968 (VT47/33).

Conceptual Development: An analogous diminutive form ᴱQ. qimelle “little woman” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s based on earlier ᴱQ. qin (qim-) “woman” (QL/77); this early word was also mentioned in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon (GL/45).

nillë

noun. silver glint; Valinorian imagines [images of real stars]

A rather obscure term given as {ille >>} ñille for the “Valinorian imagines”, false stars made in imitation of the real ones created by Varda along with the dome over Valinor (Nur-menel) which protected that land from the spies of Melkor (PE17/22; MR/388). Whether this idea survived as part of the legendarium is unclear, but this word also happens to be the closest equivalent to S. gil or gail, the usual Sindarin word for “star”, both derived from the root √(Ñ)GIL.