únótima

not possible to count, countless

únótima adj. "not possible to count, countless" (VT39:14), pl. únótimë (translated "numberless") attested (ú-nót-imë "not-count-able") (Nam, RGEO:66, Appendix E). Cf. unnegated nótima, q.v.

únótima

adjective. numberless, innumerable, countless, hard/difficult/impossible to count

A word for “numberless, countless” appearing in its plural form únótime from the Namárië poem in the phrase: yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron “long years numberless as the wings of trees” (LotR/377; RGEO/58). Tolkien described the etymology of this word in various places as a negation of nótima “countable” using the negative prefix ú-, so more literally meaning “✱uncountable”.

Conceptual Development: In the brief period around 1969 where Tolkien made lá the primary negative in Quenya, he redefined únótima as “hard/difficult to count” (PE22/156, 160); it also had this gloss in notes from 1967 (PE17/62). In a (rejected) page within Definitive Linguistic Notes (DLN) from 1959, Tolkien instead had urunóte or urnótima based on the prefix ur(u)- (PE17/172), elsewhere glossed “hard, difficult” (PE17/154). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, Tolkien gave ᴹQ. avanóte “without number, numberless” under the root ᴹ√AWA “away, forth; out” (Ety/AWA).

únótima

adjective. hard/impossible to count

nótima

countable

nótima adj. "countable" (PE17:68, 172), negated únótima "uncountable", q.v.

ú-

verb. not-, un-, in-

ú- (2) prefix "not-, un-, in-", denying presence or possession of thing or quality (VT39:14, UGU/UMU/VT46:20, GŪ, LT1:272), or simply suggesting something bad or immoral (see #úcar-, Úmaiar). Tolkien at one point considered redefining ú- as an element signifying "bad, uneasy, hard"; the already-published form únótima would then mean "difficult/impossible to count" rather than simply "uncountable" (VT42:33). However, Tolkien's very last word on the matter seems to be that ú- was to remain a mere negative (VT44:4). Compare úa, q.v. According to the Etymologies, the prefix ú- usually has a "bad sense", whereas according to early material u- (uv-, um-, un-) is a "mere negation" (UGU/UMU vs. VT42:32) According to a later source, ú- could be used as an uninflected verbal prefix, mainly in verse, but in a normal style the prefix was "verbalized" as ua-, q.v. (PE17:144). The stem Ū, as a negation, was accompanied by "pursed lips and shaking of the head" (PE17:145).