Primitive elvish
phay
root. spirit, spirit; [ᴹ√] radiate, send out rays of light
Derivations
- √PHA “exhalations (as mists upon water or steams and the like)” ✧ NM/237
Derivatives
- ✶phaini “vapour” ✧ NM/237
- S. faen “vapour; [disembodied] spirit” ✧ NM/237
- ✶phairi “spirit (general)” ✧ NM/237
- ✶phanā “veil, cloud” ✧ NM/237
- ✶phāy “flame, ray of light”
- Q. fá “*ray of light, flame” ✧ PE19/104
- ✶phayā “soul, indwelling spirit” ✧ NM/237
- Q. faila “fair-minded, just, generous” ✧ PM/352
- Q. fëa “(indwelling or incarnate) spirit, soul” ✧ PM/352
- S. fael “gleam of the sun; *gleaming”
- S. fael “fair-minded, just, generous” ✧ PM/352
Variations
- phay ✧ NM/237; NM/237
- PHAYA ✧ PM/352
phāy
noun. flame, ray of light
Derivations
Derivatives
- Q. fá “*ray of light, flame” ✧ PE19/104
phayā
noun. soul, indwelling spirit
Derivations
Derivatives
Element in
- ✶Phayanāro “Spirit of Fire” ✧ PE17/039
Variations
- phăya ✧ MR/349; MR/470
- phắyā ✧ NM/237
- phaya ✧ PE17/039
- fáyā ✧ PE17/124
When this root first appeared in The Etymologies (Ety/PHAY), it was glossed “radiate, send out rays of light” and its derivatives were consistent with this definition, most notably in N. Feanor “Radiant Sun”. In later writings, this root was instead glossed “spirit” (PM/352), which is the connotation of most of its later derivatives. For example, the later meaning of S. Fëanor was changed to “Spirit of Fire”.
The earlier sense “radiate” probably also survived in Tolkien’s later conception, however. On MR/250, the word Q. fairë “spirit” is said to originally have had the sense “radiance”, which is precisely the meaning that ᴹQ. faire had in The Etymologies. There is also a primitive monosyllable ✶phāy “flame, ray of light” in the Outline of Phonology from the early 1950s (OP2: PE19/102). If the root meaning “radiate” remains valid, then the word S. ✱fael “gleam of the sun”, an element of S. Faelivrin “gleam of the sun on the pools of Ivrin” (the second name of Finduilas), might be a derivative of this root.