A root in the Quenya Verbal System glossed “live, pass one’s days” with a Quenya verb ᴹQ. oi- of similar meaning (PE22/125). It might be a variant of √OY “ever”, though this root usually referred to “eternity” rather than a duration in time.
Primitive elvish
oy
root. ever, continual, unceasing
This root first appeared as ᴹ√OY “ever, eternal” in The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/OY), replacing roots ᴹ√GEY, ᴹ√EY, and ᴹ√ƷEI̯ of similar meaning (Ety/GEY, EY; EtyAC/ƷEI̯). It had derivatives like ᴹQ. oi/N. ui “ever” and ᴹQ. oira/N. uireb “eternal” (Ety/OY). It was an element in the name ᴹQ. Oiolosse “(Mount) Ever White” (LR/209), though when Tolkien first coined this name it was ᴹQ. Ialasse (SM/81), as reflected in Tolkien’s vacillations on the proper form of the root. After settling on √OY, he stuck with it thereafter, and this root and primitive form appeared a number of times in his later writings (PE17/69; Let/278).