stā

root. [unglossed]

A deleted root reference in The Etymologies apparently serving as the basis for the verbal action suffix ᴹ✶-stā “-ing” in ᴹ✶khau̯-stā “rest-ing” (Ety/KHAW; EtyAC/KHAW). See the entry on ✶-stā for further discussion.

stalga

adjective. stalwart, steady, firm

stalag

root. *stalwart, steady, firm

stab

root. *wood

An unglossed root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with derivatives like ᴹQ. sambe “room, chamber”, N. tham “hall”, and ᴹQ. samna/N. thafn “wooden post” (Ety/STAB). It seems to be a later iteration of the unglossed root ᴱ√SAMA from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. san (samb-) “hall, dwelling house” and ᴱQ. sambe “room, chamber” (QL/81). Its derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon seem to be G. tham “chamber, room” and G. thambros “hall”, pointing at a true root form ✱ᴱ√ÞAMA (GL/72). However, there are other words like G. sam- “arrange, put together, adjust, settle, reconcile” and G. samin “arranged, settled, done” that hint at a root form ᴱ√SAMA but with a different meaning “✱arrange” (GL/67). Looking forward, the later form S. sammath “chambers” in Sammath Naur “Chambers of Fire” (LotR/942) may imply a later shift back to ✱√SAM for this root, but that conflicts with other roots like √SAM “to have”.

stak

root. split, insert

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “split, insert” with derivatives like ᴹQ. sanka/N. thanc “cleft, split” and N. nestegi “insert, stick in” (Ety/STAK). S. thanc remained an element in S. Orthanc “Forked Height” (LotR/555; UT/400), indicating the ongoing validity of this root.

stal

root. steep

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “steep” with derivatives like Ilk. thall “steep, falling steeply (of river)” and Ilk. thalos “torrent”, the latter used for the river name Ilk. Thalos (Ety/STAL). Tolkien continued to use the name S. Thalos in later versions of The Silmarillion, but the name was translated nowhere else, making its continued connection to the 1930s root uncertain.

stan

root. fix, indicate, decide

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “fix, indicate, decide” with derivatives like ᴹQ. sanda/N. thann “firm, true, abiding” and ᴹQ. sanye “rule, law” (Ety/STAN; EtyAC/STAN).

stabnē

noun. wooden post

stabnō

noun. carpenter, wright, builder

stabrō

noun. carpenter, wright, builder

stag

root. press, compress

stalrā

adjective. steep, falling steeply (of river)

stambē

noun. room, chamber

stangā

noun. throng, crowd, press

stankā

noun. cleft, split

star

root. stiff

staran

root. *stiff, hard

starāna

adjective. stiff, hard

stalgondō

noun. hero, dauntless man

stangasyandō

proper name. throng-cleaver, throng-hewer

-asta

suffix. collective plural

dar

root. stay, wait, stop, remain

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “stay, wait, stop, remain” with derivatives N. dar- “stop, halt” and N. dartha- “wait, stay, remain, last, endure” (Ety/DAR). Given the appearances of the command S. daro in The Lord of the Rings, unglossed but clearly meaning “stop!” or “halt!”, this root almost certainly survived in Tolkien’s later conceptions (LotR/342). It was probably also the basis of the words Q. lár/S. daur “league”, which Tolkien said originally meant “stop, pause” (UT/279).

tyul

root. stand up (straight), stand up (straight); [ᴱ√] tall

This root first appeared as ᴱ√TYULU “tall” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. tyulta- “to rear up, stick up”, ᴱQ. tyulma “mast”, and ᴱQ. tyulusse “poplar” (QL/50). The last two words reappeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√TYUL “stand up (straight)” along with a Noldorin derivative N. tulus “poplar-tree” (Ety/TYUL).

In notes from the 1940s and 50s Tolkien gave new primitives forms for one of these words: ᴹ✶kyul(u)mā “mast” (SD/419; PE21/65, 74), indicating a change from ᴹ√TYUL >> ✱ᴹ√KYUL. This was probably in keeping with Tolkien’s decision in the 1950s to remove initial palatalized dentals as a feature of Primitive Elvish; see the entry on how [[at|[j] was lost after initial dentals]] in the Welsh-like branch of the Elvish languages for further details.

Neo-Eldarin: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I prefer to ignore Tolkien’s decision to remove initial palatalized dentals from Primitive Elvish. As such, I prefer √TYUL over √KYUL in order to retain attested Noldorin words from the 1930s form of the root.

waʒ

root. stain, soil

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “stain, soil” with derivatives like ᴹQ. vakse/N. gwass “stain” and ᴹQ. vára/N. gwaur “soiled, dirty” (Ety/WAƷ). Tolkien also gave it an alternate form ᴹ√VAG (EtyAC/WAƷ). The 1930s name N. Iarwath or Iarwaeth “Blood-stained” was based on this root (Ety/WAƷ, YAR; WJ/83). In the 1950s Tolkien change this name to S. Agarwaen (WJ/142), and the second element of this name (S. ✱gwaen) might still be based on ᴹ√WAƷ.

lem

root. stay, stick, adhere, remain, tarry

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “stay, stick, adhere, remain, tarry”, with variants ᴹ√LEB and ᴹ√LEM (Ety/LEM), but some of its derivatives can only plausibly be derived from ᴹ√LEM: ᴹQ. lemya- “to remain, tarry” (EtyAC/LEB). Its most notable derivative was Q. Lembi “Lingerers”, but Tolkien’s seems to have abandoned this word and the root may have been abandoned with it. It nevertheless remains useful for the purposes of Neo-Eldarin.

telek

root. stalk, stem, leg

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “stalk, stem, leg” with derivatives like ᴹQ. telko “leg” and N. telch “stem” (Ety/TÉLEK). Tolkien’s continuing use of Q. telco for “leg” or “stem (of a tengwa symbol)” indicates the ongoing validity of this root (PE22/51; PE17/122; LotR/1118). In earlier writings, Tolkien first gave ᴱQ. pelko “leg” < ᴱ√PELE (QL/73), but ᴱQ. telko “stem” appeared in Qenya Declensions from the late 1920s (PE16/113), and both pelko and telko appeared in declensions from early 1930s (PE21/48, 53) before Tolkien settled more firmly on telko in the mid-1930s, as noted above.

edel-

noun. Star-folk, Elf

el

root. star, starry sky

eled

root. Star-Folk, Elves

eledā

noun. Star-folk, Elf

gilya

noun. star

smagla

noun/adjective. stain; stained

thar

root. stand

wahsē

noun. stain

leb

root. stay, stick, adhere, remain, tarry

min

root. stand alone, stick out

vag

root. stain, soil

smag

root. soil, stain

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “soil, stain” with derivatives {mael >>} N. hmael “stain; stained” and {maw >>} N. hmaw “soil, stain” (Ety/SMAG; EtyAC/SMAG). Tolkien first gave this root as ᴹ√MAG⁽²⁾ (EtyAC/MAG²).

ndor

root. dwell, stay, rest, abide

smāgā

noun. soil, stain

tol

root. *stand up

wahtā-

verb. to soil, stain

edel

root. *star-folk

maiga

root. [unglossed]

An unglossed root appearing in the first version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa from the 1930s (TQ1) to illustrate certain patterns of root formation (PE18/66). It may have serving as the basis for ᴹQ. Maia, though this word was given different derivations later.

bel

root. strong

sed

root. rest

kalrondō

noun. hero

parkā

adjective. dry

auluta-

verb. [unglossed]

bay

root. [unglossed]

day

root. shadow

ezdē

noun. rest

iw

root. [unglossed], [ᴱ√] *fish

kaltwa

?. [unglossed]

khlip

root. [unglossed]

An unglossed root in a rejected paragraph from the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) written in 1948 (PE22/112 note #78).

khōn

noun. heart

krab

root. press

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “press” used as the basis for the [Noldorin] word for cram (Ety/KRAB). Later Tolkien decided this was a word in the language of the men of Dale; see Wes. cram for discussion.

kwen(ed)

root. Elf

kwenedē

noun. Elf

kōmā

noun. [unglossed]

lūme

noun. time

mbar-

verb. to dwell

mā

noun. land

phan

root. [unglossed]

A deleted root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with no glosses or derivatives and no clear function (EtyAC/PHAN).

sangā

noun. throng

skil

root. [unglossed]

A root mentioned in passing in as a variant of ᴹ√KIL “divide” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, but it had no derivatives and appeared nowhere else (Ety/KIL).

stin

root. [unglossed]

torōmā

noun. [unglossed]

tārā

adjective. lofty

tārī

noun. queen

uruk

root. [unglossed]

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with no glosses or derivatives and no clear function (EtyAC/URUK).

us

root. [unglossed]

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with no glosses or derivatives and no clear function (EtyAC/US).

wath

root. shade

winyē

noun. evening