del

root. walk, go, proceed, travel

This root appears in the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60 with the sense “walk, go, proceed, travel” (WJ/360). Its derivatives were S. Edhel “Elf” and Q. †Eldo which blended with Elda “Elf”, both originally with the sense “one who goes” (✶edelō): those who left lake Cuiviénen to travel to Valinor. It is also the basis of several words meaning “to go”: T. delia- and Q. lelya-.

Many of Quenya derivatives of this root actually derive from an inversion √LED of the original √DEL. According to the Quendi and Eldar essay, this inversion only occurred in Quenya (WJ/363). In earlier writings like The Etymologies, however, ᴹ√LED “go, fare, travel” was the basic root in all languages. It seems that Tolkien revised ᴹ√LED >> √DEL, preserving √LED only as a Quenya variant. The strongest sign of this change was Tolkien’s consistent alteration of N. Eledh >> S. Edhel.

This leaves open the question of what happened to the other non-Quenya derivatives of ᴹ√LED, such as S. edlen(n) “exile”. It is possible that they were transferred to a new root √LEN, which was the basis for S. lembas “way bread” (PE17/60).

delya-

verb. walk, go, proceed, travel

led

root. go, proceed, go, proceed, [ᴹ√] fare, travel

This root appeared in The Etymologies (Ety/LED) and in some later writings (PE17/51, 139) with the basic sense “go”. In the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60, Tolkien decided that √LED was a Quenya-only variant of the original root √DEL (WJ/360, 363). Elsewhere, Tolkien said that √LED was “not much used in Sindarin except in compounds with ✶et ‘out’ as edlen(n)” (PE17/51). Its Sindarin derivative S. lembas “way bread” was reassigned to √LEN (PE17/60). See √DEL and √LEN for further discussion.

edelō

noun. one who goes, traveller, migrant, marcher

lelya-

go, proceed (in any direction), travel

lelya- (1) vb. "go, proceed (in any direction), travel", pa.t. lendë / elendë (WJ:363, VT14:5, PE17:139) At one point Tolkien assigned a more specific meaning to the underlying root LED: "go away from the speaker or the point in mind, depart" (PE17:52), which would make lelya- a near synonym of auta-. The same source denies that the derivatives of _LED _were used simply for "go, move, travel", but elsewhere Tolkien assigns precisely that meaning to lelya-.

lelya-

verb. to go, proceed (in any direction), travel

lenda

noun. journey, journey, *travel, trip

@@@ extended meaning from NQ-Wiki

lelelya-

verb. to travel

lendië

noun. tourism, *traveling

lendë

noun. journey

aiano

noun. stranger

lenda

journey

lenda (1) noun "journey" (PE17:60)

lenna-

go

lenna- vb. "go", pa.t. lendë "went" (LED; cf. lelya-). In the Etymologies as printed in LR, the word lenna- wrongly appears as **linna-; see VT45:27.

men-

go

#men- (4) vb. "go" (VT47:11, cf. VT42:30, VT49:23), attested in the aorist (menë) in the sentence imbi Menel Cemenyë menë Ráno tië "between Heaven and Earth goes the path of the Moon". In the verb nanwen- "return" (or go/come back), -men- is changed to -wen- following nan- "back" (etymological form cited as nan-men-, PE17:166). In examples from VT49:23, 24, Tolkien used men- in the sense of "go as far as": 1st person sg. aorist menin (menin coaryanna "I arrive at [or come/get to] his house"), endingless aorist menë, present tense ména- "is on point of arrival, is just coming to an end", past tense mennë "arrived, reached", in this tense usually with locative rather than allative (mennen sís "I arrive[d] here"), perfect eménië "has just arrived", future menuva "will arrive". All of these examples were first written with the verb as ten- rather than men-, Tolkien then emending the initial consonant.

mesta

journey

mesta noun ?"journey" (Arct)

pata-

walk

pata- vb. "walk" (PE17:34)

vanta

walk

vanta (2) noun "walk" (BAT)

vanya-

go, depart, disappear

vanya- (2) vb. "go, depart, disappear", pa.t. vannë (WAN). The verb auta- may have replaced this word in Tolkien's later conception.

ledh-

verb. to go, to go, *travel, journey

@@@ extended meanings suggested by Fiona Jallings

bad- Reconstructed

verb. *to tread, travel, *to tread, [G.] travel

glenna-

verb. *to travel

lîdh

noun. journey

From ✱lēde < √LED “go, proceed”, see also N. ledh- “to go”. Noun forms with long vowels that correspond to basic verbs with short vowels are fairly common in Sindarin, for example: N. mîl n. “love” vs. S. mel- v. “to love”; N. glîr n. “song” vs. N. glir- “to sing”. A direct cognate of Q. lenda “journey” would be ᴺS. lend or lenn, but the form ᴺS. lend already exists as an adjective for “tuneful, sweet”.

lend

noun. journey

lenn-

noun. journey

men-

verb. to go

pad-

walk

_ v. _walk, step. Q. pata-. >> Tharbad

pada-

verb. to walk

padra-

walk

_ v. _walk. >> pad-

bad

go

#bad- (i vâd, i medir), pa.t. bant. Isolated from trevad- ”traverse”.

bad

go

(i vâd, i medir), pa.t. bant. Isolated from trevad- ”traverse”.

lembas

journey-bread

(way-bread), pl. lembais

lend

journey

lend (way), pl. lind, coll. pl. lennath. Note: a homophone means ”tuneful, sweet”.

lend

journey

(way), pl. lind, coll. pl. lennath. Note: a homophone means ”tuneful, sweet”.

pada

walk

(on a track or path) pada- (i bada, i phadar)

pada

walk

(on a track or path) pada- (i bada, i phadar)

renia

wander

renia- (sail, fly, stray) (i renia, idh reniar).

renia

wander

(sail, fly, stray) (i renia, idh reniar).

yad-

verb. to go

A verb appearing in the Lament of Akallabêth in the form ayadda “(it) went” (SD/247, VT24/12). Its initial element is the 3rd persons neuter plural suffix a- “it”. This leaves the basic verb form yadda, which is the past tense according to the theories used here.

Conceptual Development: It appeared in the form yadda in the first draft version of the Lament, and this form was also briefly considered as a replacement for unakkha “he-came” in the first sentence of the Lament (SD/312).