Quenya 

vénë

virginity

vénë < wénë noun "virginity" (WEN/WENED); in one source vénë also appears with the concrete meaning "virgin" (VT44:10), but this is normally vendë, wendë instead.

vénë

noun. *virgin, *virgin; [ᴹQ.] girl

A word given by Tolkien as Véne “Virgin” in the Quenya Prayer Ortírielyanna, a translation of Sub Tuum Praesidium (VT44/5-6). Tolkien initially wrote several hesitant forms Ven > Wen > We before writing Véne. In the last phrase he wrote down for the prayer, he revised it to Vénde though the prior phrase with Véne’ was not deleted. As suggested by Wynne, Smith, and Hostetter, Vénde was an alteration from Véne, and its long vowel was probably not intended (VT44/10). Elsewhere Tolkien used wendë for “virgin”, for example in the Quenya translation of the Litany of Loreto prayer (VT44/12); see the entry on vendë for further discussion.

Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies of the 1930s ᴹQ. wéne, véne was given as a word for “girl” or “maiden”, or possibly “virginity” (Ety/WEN).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I think it is useful to be able to distinguish “virgin” and “maiden”. I’d use vénë for “virgin” and [ᴹQ.] venessë for “virginity” (irrespective of gender), but vendë for “maiden, ✱young woman” and vendelë for “maidenhood”.

Changes

  • VéneVénde “*Virgin” ✧ VT44/10

Derivations

  • WEN(ED) “maiden, girl, virgin; woman”

Element in

Variations

  • Véne ✧ VT44/10

vénëa

noun. *virginal

A hypothetical adjectival form of vénë, implied by the elided form Véne’ in the phrase á Véne’ alcare ar manquenta (VT44/7), since it appears to proceed a noun form alcarë “glory” as suggested by Wynne, Smith, and Hostetter (VT44/10).

Element in

Elements

WordGloss
vénëvirgin, virgin; [ᴹQ.] girl”

wénë

virginity

wénë > vénë noun "virginity" (WEN/WENED)

venessë

virginity

venessë noun "virginity" (WEN/WENED)

nettë

girl, daughter

nettë (stem *netti-, given the primitive form listed in VT47:17) noun "girl, daughter" (but also "sister", see below), also used as a play-name of the "fourth finger" or "fourth toe" (VT47:10, VT48:6), in two-hand play also used for the numeral "nine" (nettë is conceived as being related to nertë, q.v.) Nettë is also defined as "sister" or "girl approaching the adult" (VT47:16, VT49:25), "girl/daughter" (VT47:15-16); it may be that "sister" was Tolkien's final decision on the meaning (VT48:4, 22) - The related word nésa seems like a less ambiguous translation of "sister".