A noun for “life” appearing in Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 derived from primitive {✶we’te [weʒte] >>} ✶weg-tē “activity, occupation” (PE17/189). Tolkien said that vehte meant:
> not Life in general or as a principle, but (a period of) individual activity, as in vehtequentale “biography”. It was used therefore sometimes almost like nóre “land” — of the place where a person, people etc. lived and had their business, i.e. habitat, haunt. So Beleriand might be described as an Eldavehte, a habitation, haunt or place occupied by Eldar.
Thus vehte refers to a span of life or activity (temporal or physical), and in this sense was the basis for words like vehtequentalë “biography = ✱life-history” as well as various place names as habitats where people lived.
vehtë noun "life - not Life in general or as a principle, but (a period of) individual activity", thus also "the place where a person, people &c. lived and had their business, i.e. habitat, haunt" (PE17:189)