phaw

foa

Q. foa. >> faw

faw

noun. *breath, puff of breath

An unglossed word in 1964 notes on Dalath Dirnen (DD) derived from the root √PHAW (PE17/181). Since this root was elsewhere glossed “emit (foul breath etc.)”, this word probably mean something like “✱breath, puff of breath”, like its cognate Q. foa (VT47/35).

faw

foa

Q. foa. >> phaw

faug

adjective. gape, [N.] thirsty, [S.] gape

An adjective for “thirsty” appearing in names like Anfauglir “Jaws of Thirst”.

Conceptual Development: In the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s the word for “thirsty” was G. luib (GL/55) clearly based on the early root ᴱ√LOYO (QL/56). By Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s, the word had become ᴱN. faug “thirsty” (PE13/143), and N. faug “thirsty” appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√PHAU̯ “gape” (Ety/PHAU). Christopher Tolkien gave faug the gloss “gape” in The Silmarillion appendix (SI/faug), but that seems to refer to the root meaning from the 1930s.

phā

noun. breath, puff of breath

föa

noun. breath, puff of breath

A word appearing as fā in 1968 notes on primitive monosyllables as a derivative of ✶phā “breath, puff of breath” (VT47/35). Tolkien said this word survived in Quenya, but in a later sentence he wrote Q. fawa, foa, perhaps indicating its more common form was foa. The form foa appeared unglossed in 1964 notes on Dalath Dirnen (DD), and also in 1957 Quenya Notes (QN) as a derivative of √PHAW “emit (foul breath etc.)” and an element in foalóke, probably = “✱breath-dragon” (PE17/181). As such, I consider foa the most likely Quenya form and “breath, puff of breath” its most likely meaning.

Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, this word appeared as ᴱQ. foa “hoard, treasure” under the early root ᴱ√FOƷO “hide, hoard, store up, lay up in secret”, also as an element in ᴱQ. Foalôke as the name of a dragon (QL/38).

fá

noun. breath, puff of breath