A suffix used to form masculine nouns from common or neuter nouns (SD/435). Another common variant was -ô (SD/438).
Primitive elvish
owo
root. masculine
Noldorin
-we
suffix. masculine suffix
-on
suffix. masculine suffix
Adûnaic
-û
suffix. masculine suffix
Sindarin
-on
suffix. masculine suffix
A masculine suffix and ending in male names (PE17/43, 141; WJ/400), probably related to the masculine ending or agental suffix ✶-on(do) (NM/353; Ety/KAL). It becomes -or when following an n (PE17/141).
Conceptual Development: N. -on was often use as a male suffix in the Noldorin of the 1930s and 40s. In Gnomish of the 1910s, it seems G. -os was another common male suffix in words such as G. ainos “(male) god” from neuter G. ain “god” (GL/18) and G. hethos “brother” from neuter G. heth “✱sibling” (GL/48-49), though masculine G. -(r)on was still more common in this early period.
Quenya
-on
suffix. masculine suffix
-ō, -ŏ
suffix. masculine
masculine
Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!
Early Primitive Elvish
owo
noun. *wool
Middle Primitive Elvish
-owo
suffix. masculine suffix
tow
root. *wool
An unglossed root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with derivatives like ᴹQ. tó “wool” and ᴹQ. toa/N. taw “of wool, woollen” (Ety/TOW); ✶tŏwŏ “wool” also appeared in Common Eldarin: Noun Structure from the early 1950s (PE21/80). In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, the root was instead ᴱ√OWO with derivatives like ᴱQ. oa “wool”, ᴱQ. oara “of wool”, and ᴱQ. ue “fleece” (QL/71). The Gnomish word G. uf⁽⁾ “fine wool, down” was probably related (GL/74), but the word for “wool” in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon was G. tô with Qenya cognate ᴱQ. toa and primitive form ᴱ✶tou̯ (GL/71), hence very similar to the entry in The Etymologies. In Early Noldorin Word-lists from the 1920s Tolkien gave ᴱN. tô “fleece” or “wool” as a derivatives of ᴱ✶togo (PE13/154, 165).
Gnomish
-os
suffix. masculine suffix
-weg
suffix. masculine suffix
gwegrin
adjective. masculine
A word in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “masculine”, an adjectival form of G. gweg “man” (GL/44).
Early Quenya
-ndo
suffix. masculine suffix
-nu
suffix. masculine suffix
Qenya
-on
suffix. masculine suffix
-we
suffix. masculine suffix
Doriathrin
-on Reconstructed
suffix. masculine suffix
Apparently a masculine suffix attested in the name Dairon.
A primitive form or root in Common Eldarin: Noun Structure from the early 1950s serving as the basis for masculinizing suffixes and “adjectival” ✶wonā (PE21/82-83). A similar set of ancient masculine suffixes appeared in the first version of notes on Quenya Personal Pronouns (QPP1) from the late 1940s (PE23/87), and again in notes on Eldarin Pronouns, Demonstratives, and Correlatives (EP1) from the early 1950s (PE23/129). It may be a conceptual variation of √EWE, which was sometimes used masculine suffixes and sometimes for neuter ones. For most purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I think it is best to limit this root to suffixes.