sara

noun. stiff dry grass, bent, stiff dry grass, bent [as a type of grass]

A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “stiff dry grass, bent” under the root ᴹ√STAR “stiff” (Ety/STAR). In theory “bent” may be an adjective, but more likely it refers to the species of stiff grass often used in lawns.

tek-

verb. to write, to write, [ᴱQ.] write on; to mark

uruite

adjective. fiery

A word in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “fiery”, an adjectival form of ᴹQ. úr “fire” under the root ᴹ√UR “be hot”, but these words were deleted when the meaning of the root was revised to “wide, large, great” (Ety/UR).

Conceptual Development: A similar word ᴱQ. uruvoite “fiery, having fire” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon under the early root ᴱ√URU (QL/98).

Neo-Quenya: The word úr “fire” was restored in some later writings, and this adjective may have been restored with it, but I prefer ᴺQ. úruva for “fiery”; see that entry for discussion.

úruva

adjective. fiery

A word in The Etymologies of the 1930s appearing as ᴹQ. úruva “fiery”, an adjectival form of ᴹQ. úr “fire” under the root ᴹ√UR “be hot”, but these words were deleted when the meaning of the root was revised to “wide, large, great” (Ety/UR).

Conceptual Development: The word ᴱQ. urūva “like fire” also appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√URU (QL/98).

Neo-Quenya: The word úr “fire” was restored in some later writings, and this adjective may have been restored with it. I personally would use ᴺQ. úruva “fiery” for purposes of Neo-Quenya. See the entry on ᴹQ. úr for further discussion on the viability of “fire” words based on √UR.

sara

root. *saw

sara Speculative

root. *surf

A hypothetical root explaining various related words in Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s such as G. saros “surf, sea” and G. sôr “wave” (GL/67). There are no signs of this root being used this way in Tolkien’s later writing.

þara Reconstructed

root. *saw

þolo

root. *surf

sarma

noun. saw

A word appearing as ᴱQ. sarma “a saw” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, a noun form of ᴱQ. sara- “saw” under the root ᴱ√SARA of the similar meaning (QL/82).

Neo-Quenya: Since I retain ᴺQ. sara- “to saw [wood]” for purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would retain the noun ᴺQ. sarma “saw” as well.

sara-

verb. to saw

A verb appearing as ᴱQ. sara- “saw” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s derived from the early root {ᴱ√SAŘA >>} ᴱ√SARA, apparently of the same meaning (QL/82). Its Gnomish cognate G. thar- “saw (up)” indicates an actual root form of ✱ᴱ√ÞARA.

Neo-Quenya: The root √THAR means “across” in Tolkien’s later writings, but I think ᴺQ. sara- “to saw [wood]” is still salvageable from an original sense of “✱(cut) across”.

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”.

sinda nekka ui sara ro sinda hyalin me sinda móro

*this pen is not writing on this paper with this ink

sarko

noun. elder [tree]

A word appearing as {sara >>} sarko “elder” in Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s in the section describing types of trees (PE16/140).

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).

tekta-

verb. to write

sara-

verb. ait

tectha-

verb. to write

tharm

noun. saw

A word appearing as G. tharm or thram “a saw” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, a noun form of G. thar- “saw (up)” (GL/72-73).

Neo-Sindarin: Since I retain ᴺS. thar- “to saw (up)” for purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would retain the noun as well, but updated to ᴺS. tharf “saw” to better fit later Sindarin phonology.

thram

noun. saw

sol

root. *surf

An unglossed root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with derivatives like ᴹQ. solor “surf” (< ᴹ✶solos) and ᴹQ. Solonyeldi “✱Surf Singers” as another name for the Teleri (Ety/SOL). It is a later iteration of ᴱ√SOLO from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. solme “wave” and ᴱQ. solor “surf”, and was in this period the basis for the name ᴱQ. Solosimpe “Shore Piper” (QL/85). Words in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon like G. thloss “breaker” and G. Thlossibrim = ᴱQ. Solosimpi were derived from primitive thol-, indicating the early form of the root was actually ᴱ√ÞOLO (GL/73), which in Gnomish was intermingled with derivatives of ᴱ√FALA “✱wave” (GL/33, 35).

The etymology of the 1930s ᴹQ. solor “surf” < ᴹ✶solos is problematic, in that it shows final -s > -r, a remnant of ideas from Early Qenya. Tolkien’s use of Q. Falmari “Wave-folk” in later writings as the primary alternate name for the Teleri (S/53; PM/386) calls into question the continued validity of ᴹ√SOL. Nevertheless, I think it is useful to retain this root in Neo-Eldarin to salvage some early words like ᴱQ. sóla “tide”.