A word for “ointment” in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from primitive ᴹ✶laibē under the root ᴹ√LIB (Ety/LIB²). The (archaic?) form laiwe appeared in notes written around 1940 as a cognate to N. glaew (TMME/53).
Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s Tolkien had ᴱQ. oine “unguent” and ᴱQ. oinalis (oinaliss-) “ointment”, both under the early root ᴱ√OẎO (QL/71). ᴱQ. oine “unguent” also appeared in the contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa (PME/71).
laivë noun "ointment" (LIB2)