rin

root. *circle

This root first appeared as unglossed ᴱ√RINI in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. rin (rind-) “year, circle” and ᴱQ. rinko “disc, orb, circle” (QL/80). It also had derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. rin- “revolve, return, come back; do again” and G. rinc “circular; disc, rondure” (GL/65), but also strengthened forms like G. †drinn “ring, disc” and G. drintha- “to turn (tr.), twist” (GL/30). The root reappeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s with derivatives like ᴹQ. rinda/N. rhenn “circular” and ᴹQ. rinde/N. rhinn “circle” (Ety/RIN).

ringi

root. cold

rinki

noun. flourish, quick stroke

yenrinde

noun. year

lokko

noun. ringlet

nyel

root. ring, sing, give out a sweet sound

nyol

root. ring

ar

root. day

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “day” with various derivatives like ᴹQ. are, N. aur “day” and ᴹQ. arin “morning” (Ety/AR¹). In Tolkien’s later writings, the Quenya word for “day” became aurë (RC/727; S/190), and in 1957 Quenya Notes he devised a new etymology for these day-words from the root √UR “heat” as in ✶auri “heat, period of sun” (PE17/148). That opens the question whether the various 1930s Quenya “morning” words from ᴹ√AR remain valid, but many Neo-Quenya writers (including me) retain them since there aren’t really any good alternatives. They might be salvageable as derivatives of the later root √AS “warmth” (so that “day” = “hot” and “morning” = “warm”).

thel(es)

root. sister

Tolkien gave this root in The Etymologies of the 1930s as ᴹ√THEL and extended form ᴹ√THELES with the gloss “sister” and derivatives like ᴹQ. seler and N. thêl of the same meaning, both derived from the extended root as made clear by the Noldorin plural thelei < ON. thelehi (Ety/THEL). Hints of the roots continued use appear in the 1959 term Q. meletheldi “love-sisters” for close female friends (NM/20). In notes from the late 1960s, Tolkien gave Q. nésa and S. nethel as the words for “sister”, both from the root √NETH. Nevertheless, I think it is worth retaining ᴹ√THEL(ES) to represent more abstract notions of “sisterhood” for the purposes of Neo-Eldarin, for “metaphorical sister”s as opposed to Q. nésa/S. nethel for sisters by blood.

kor

root. round

yen

root. year

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “year” with derivatives like ᴹQ. yén/N. în “year” (Ety/YEN). Tolkien’s ongoing use of words like Q. yén and S. ínias “annals” indicate its ongoing validity (LotR/377; MR/200), but in Quenya at least the meaning shifted to that of an “Elvish long year”, equal to 144 solar years (LotR/1107; MR/471; NM/84).

ari

noun. day

lak

root. swift

lepet

root. finger

lisge

noun. reed