mapa-

grasp, seize

mapa- vb. "grasp, seize" (MAP; according to LT2:339 this word was struck out in the "Gnomish Lexicon" [where it was quoted as the cognate of certain Gnomish words], but it reappears in the Etymologies.) Earlier material gives map- "take" (PE16:133) or map- "seize, take" with pa.t. nampë (QL:59); it is unclear if the pa.t. of map(a)- is still nampë in LotR-style Quenya.

atsa

catch, hook, claw

atsa noun "catch, hook, claw" (GAT)

raf-

verb. to wave, brandish, [ᴹQ.] to snatch, seize; to wave, brandish

Derivations

• ✶raph- “waves, brandishes” ✧ PE19/089
  • √RAPH “seize, grab, seize, grab, [ᴹ√] snatch” ✧ PE19/089

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
✶raphe > rafe	[rapʰe] > [raɸe] > [rafe]	✧ PE19/089
✶raphe > *ramphe > rappe	[rampʰe] > [rappʰe] > [rappe]	✧ PE19/089

rapa-

verb. to snatch

@@@ etymology unclear

raeda-

verb. to catch in a net

gad

catch

(i ’âd, i ngedir = i ñedir), pa.t. gant;

raph-

verb. to snatch, seize, steal

Derivations

• √RAPH “seize, grab, seize, grab, [ᴹ√] snatch”

raeda

catch in a net

(i raeda, idh raedar) (VT42:12)

mab

grasp

*mab*-[or maba-?] (i vâb, i mebir**) (seize). Only the ”Old Noldorin” form map- is cited in the source (LR:371 s.v. MAP)

mab

grasp

[or ✱maba-?] (i vâb, i mebir) (seize). Only the ”Old Noldorin” form map- is cited in the source (LR:371 s.v. MAP)****

mab-

verb. to seize, *grasp, grab; to take away by force

Derivations

• √MAP “take away, take hold of, grasp, take away, take hold of, grasp, [ᴹ√] lay hold of with hand, seize”

raph

root. seize, grab, seize, grab, [ᴹ√] snatch

The root ᴹ√RAPH “snatch” itself first appeared in the Quenya Verbal System with a derived verb of ᴹQ. raf- of the same meaning (PE22/102), but it might have been a reemergence of the very first (deleted) gloss of the early root ᴱ√RAPA the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s: “handle hastily, snatch, grab” (QL/79). As for √RAPH, it reappeared in green-ink revisions to the Outline of Phonology (OP2) from around 1970 with the gloss “seize, grab” and a derivative Q. arpo “seizer, thief” (PE19/89 and note #101). On the same page but from the originally layer of composition from the early 1950s there is the verb Q. raf- “wave, brandish” which may be related, though if so it must represent some semantic drift (PE19/89).

Derivatives

• ✶arphō “seizer, thief” ✧ PE19/089
  • Q. arpo “seizer, thief” ✧ PE19/089
• ✶raph- “waves, brandishes” ✧ PE19/089
  • Q. raf- “to wave, brandish, [ᴹQ.] to snatch, seize; to wave, brandish” ✧ PE19/089
• ᴺS. raph- “to snatch, seize, steal”

map

root. take away, take hold of, grasp, take away, take hold of, grasp, [ᴹ√] lay hold of with hand, seize

This root was connected to grabbing things by hand for most of Tolkien’s life. It first appeared as ᴱ√MAPA “seize” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. map- “seize, take” and ᴱQ. maptale “robbery” (QL/59). In the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon its main derivative was G. mab “hand” (GL/55). In the Gnomish Lexicon, Tolkien did redefine mab as a dual form of G. mô “hand”, but it was later restored as an independent word and survived all the way into Sindarin as S. mâb “hand”.

The root reappeared as ᴹ√MAP “lay hold of with hand, seize” in The Etymologies of the 1930s with a similar set of derivatives (Ety/MAP). √MAP was mentioned again in the late 1960s in notes on Eldarin Hands, Fingers and Numerals, with glosses like “take hold of, grasp” (VT47/7) and “take away” (VT47/20). But in these same notes Tolkien made the somewhat shocking decision to abandon this root, proposing instead that S. mâb was derived from CE ✶makwā “handful” (VT47/6).

Neo-Eldarin: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I would ignore this very late idea, since √MAP appears so regularly in Tolkien’s earlier writings.

Derivatives

• ᴺQ. amapta- “to ravish, seize and carry off forcibly”
• Q. maqua “hand-full, group of five (similar) things; hand (colloquial); closing or closed [hand] (facing down) for taking” ✧ VT47/20; VT47/20
• ᴺS. avautha- “to ravish, seize (forcibly)”
• ᴺS. mab- “to seize, *grasp, grab; to take away by force”
• S. mâb “hand, hand, [N.] grasp” ✧ VT47/20
• T. mapa “hand” ✧ VT47/20
  • T. mapa- “to take hold of, grasp” ✧ VT47/07
• T. mapa- “to take hold of, grasp” ✧ VT47/07

Variations

• mapa ✧ VT47/20
• map ✧ VT47/20

mab

noun. grasp

Cognates

• Ilk. mâb “hand” ✧ EtyAC/MAP

Derivations

• ᴹ√MAP “lay hold of with hand, seize” ✧ EtyAC/MAP

Element in

• N. Mablothren “*Empty-handed”

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ√MAPA > mab	[mapa] > [map] > [mab]	✧ EtyAC/MAP

gad-

verb. to catch

gad-

verb. to catch

Cognates

• ᴺQ. at- “to catch, capture”

Derivations

• ᴹ√GAT “*catch” ✧ Ety/GAT

Element in

• ᴺS. gadas “trap”

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ√GAT > gad-	[gat-] > [gad-]	✧ Ety/GAT