sá

noun. fire

sáya

masculine name. Sáya

Name of a fire fairy in the Gnomish Lexicon from the 1910s (GL/66), probably a derivative of the root ᴱ√SAH(Y)A “be hot”.

sári

proper name. Sun

A name for the Sun in the earliest Lost Tales (LT1/186), probably a derivative of the root ᴱ√SAH(Y)A “be hot” as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (LT1A/Sári).

saike

noun. hunger

A noun appearing as ᴱQ. saike (saiki-) “hunger” in the Qenya Lexicon under the early root ᴱ√SAẎA (QL/82). In Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s, the Qenya word for “hunger” was instead saiste (PE13/147).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya I would retain the noun ᴺQ. saicë “hunger” based on a Neo-Root ᴺ√SAYAK, but only as an archaic word so I could justify the retention of various famine-related words like ᴺQ. saicelë. For normal speech I would assume ᴺQ. maitië is the ordinary word for “hunger”, a noun form of the adjective Q. maita “hungry” from around 1960.

sar-

verb. to write

A verb appearing as ᴱQ. sar- “write” in Early Qenya Word-lists from the 1920s. Hints at its later validity may be seen in Q. sarat, the names of the letters in the Sarati alphabet, and the root √SAR “score, incise; write”, both mentioned in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60.

Neo-Quenya: Most Neo-Quenya writers use [ᴹQ.] tec- as the ordinary word for write, given its obvious association to Q. tehta and Q. tengwa. One of the challenges with sar- for “write” is that in Tolkien’s later writings, √SAR is also associated with “stone”, as in S. sarn/Q. sar “(small) stone”. In a discussion on the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS) in April 2022, Röandil suggested restoring ᴺQ. sar- with the sense “to mark (i.e. by incision), notch, score; (by later extension) to write”. Based on this I invented the following (fan-based) etymology:

Given its derivatives, it seems likely that √SAR is associated with stone but also with marks, probably originally marks in stone but generalized from there to marks on other substances. From this sar- was used as the basis for the earliest system of writing, both as a verb and in the name sarati. However, with the introduction of Feanor’s tengwar alphabet, this word no longer seemed suitable for as a general writing word, and was displaced by tec-, originally also meaning “make a mark”, but not specifically associated with stone.

Since tec- now usually meant “write”, the archaic sense “mark, score” was restored to sar-. This was aided by the fact that sar- was primarily a transitive verb, and used some awkward constructions. In particular, with the verb sar-, the direct object was always the thing written on, rather than the thing written. Thus with sar-, the proper way to say “write a sentence on paper” was actually sare hyalin quettalénen “write [on] paper with a sentence [instrumental]”, a construction that still survives, though now somewhat archaic. Meanwhile, the direct object of tec- is the thing written, so one would say tece quettale hyalinesse “write a sentence on paper”.

Note that this last construction [sare hyalin quettalénen] is inspired by Tolkien’s usage of the ᴱQ. verb teke- from the 1910s (QL/90), and essentially reverses of the Early Qenya paradigm of the 1910s and 20s, switching the roles of tek- and sar-. There is no evidence that the above Neo-Quenya discussion matches Tolkien’s own thoughts on the subject, so it should be considered “etymological fan-fiction”.

sár(e)a

adjective. fiery

An adjective in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “fiery” with variants sāra and sārea (the second added later) derived from the early root ᴱ√SAH(Y)A “be hot” (QL/81).

saiste

noun. hunger

vasa

noun. juice

auro

noun. sun

A noun appearing in Early Noldorin Word-lists as {ūru >>} auro, cognate of ᴱN. úr “sun”, and derived from {✶ourǝ >>} ✶ourū̆ (PE13/155). Elsewhere Q. Úr(in) was a name for the Sun from the 1910s up through the 1950s, but Tolkien eventually changed this to Vása (MR/198).

tan(y)a

noun. fire

An element meaning “fire” in some early names: tanya in ᴱQ. Tanyasalpe (LT1/187), tana in ᴱQ. Tana Qentima equivalent of G. Tôn a Gwedrin “Tale-fire” (PE15/7; LT2/197), and possibly also in ᴱQ. Fatanyu “Hell” (GL/51). Tan(y)a is likely a derivative of the early root ᴱ√tan- (GL/69, 71).

a

pronoun. it

ahúra

noun. Sun

An early Qenya word for the Sun appearing in a word list from the 1920s (PE15/77). Its etymology is obscure.

mis

noun. urine

A noun appearing as ᴱQ. mis (mist-) “urine” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s from the early root ᴱ√MISI “mingere”, which is Latin for “urinate” (QL/62).

Neo-Quenya: I’d retain ᴺQ. mis (mist-) “urine” for purposes of Neo-Quenya, based on the later root ᴹ√MIS having to do with wet things. It conflicts somewhat with Q. mistë < √MIZDI “drizzle, light rain”, but I don’t see that as a problem, as the word for “urine” might have originated euphemistically as “make rain”.

narte

adjective. bitter

piqesta

noun. bitterness

pulqe

noun. juice

píqa

adjective. bitter

píqele

noun. bitterness

tekta-

verb. to write

uru

noun. fire