Primitive elvish
ruk
root. terrible shapes and the fear they inspire, terrible shapes and the fear they inspire, [ᴹ√] demon
Derivatives
- ✶grauk- “a powerful hostile and terrible creature” ✧ WJ/389
- ✶raukō “demon” ✧ WJ/389
- ✶urkā “horrible” ✧ WJ/389
- ✶urku/urkō “orc” ✧ WJ/389
- Q. rauco “demon, powerful hostile and terrible creature” ✧ PE17/048; VT39/10
- Q. ruc- “to feel fear or horror; *to flee (to)” ✧ WJ/389
- Q. rúcima “terrible” ✧ WJ/389
- Q. ruhta- “to terrify” ✧ WJ/389
- S. groga- “to feel terror” ✧ WJ/389
- S. gruitha- “to terrify” ✧ WJ/389
- S. raug “demon, powerful hostile and terrible creature” ✧ PE17/048
Element in
- ✶(ñ)guruk “horror” ✧ WJ/415
Variations
- RUKU ✧ WJ/389
- Ruku ✧ WJ/392
- (g)ruk ✧ WJ/415
raukō
noun. demon
Derivations
- √RUK “terrible shapes and the fear they inspire, terrible shapes and the fear they inspire, [ᴹ√] demon” ✧ WJ/389
Variations
- rauku/raukō ✧ WJ/390
The root ᴹ√RUK “demon” appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s with derivatives ᴹQ. rauko and N. rhaug of the same meaning, serving as the basis for N. Balrog (Ety/RUK). In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, similar “demon” words were derived from primitive ᴱ✶ʒǝroukē instead (QL/32). As for √RUK, in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60 it was glossed “terrible shapes and the fear they inspire”, serving as the basis for both Q. rauko/S. raug “demon” and S. orch “Orc” < ✱urkō or ✱urkā (WJ/389-90, 415); the latter was instead derived from unglossed ᴹ√OROK in The Etymologies of the 1930s along with various other words for “goblin” in multiple Elvish languages (Ety/ÓROK). Primitive (o)rok reappeared in notes probably from the late 1950s denoting “anything that caused fear and/or horror” (MR/413); this might be a transition towards later √RUK “terrible shapes and the fear they inspire”.