Quenya 

veru

husband

veru (1) noun "husband" (VT49:45). An earlier source gives the word for "husband" as venno.

veru

noun. husband

The most common word for “husband” in Quenya (VT49/45).

Conceptual Development: This word dates all the way back to the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s where ᴱQ. veru “husband” appeared as a derivative of the early root ᴱ√VEŘE [VEÐE] (QL/101). In the English-Qenya Dictionary of the 1920s the word for “husband” appeared as ᴱQ. vero, but this form was marked as archaic (†) and became in normal speech the longer word ᴱQ. veruner (PE15/74). In Early Noldorin Word-lists and notes on the Valmaric Script from the 1920s the word was still veru (PE13/146; PE14/112), and in the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s Tolkien gave ᴹQ. veru “husband” as an example of a ū-declension (PE21/15).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s, however, Tolkien gave a different form ᴹQ. venno for “husband” while ᴹQ. veru was a dual form meaning “husband and wife, married pair”, both derived from the root ᴹ√BES “wed” (Ety/BES). The nn in venno is because it was derived from primitive ᴹ✶besnō and sn > zn > nn in Quenya (PE19/49). In a 1969 note, Tolkien restored Q. veru for “husband”, deriving it instead from a root √BER “to mate, be mated, joined in marriage” (VT49/45).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I prefer to retain the 1930s root ᴹ√BES for marriage words in order to preserve Noldorin/Sindarin forms, but I would still use the well-established veru for “husband”, just conceived of as a derivative of the root √BES, coming from ✱besū with intervocalic s > z > r.

Derivations

  • verū “husband” ✧ VT49/45
    • BER “to mate, be mated, joined in marriage” ✧ VT49/45

Element in

Phonetic Developments

DevelopmentStagesSources
verū > veru[berū] > [βerū] > [βeru] > [veru]✧ VT49/45

veru

husband and wife, married pair

veru (2) dual noun "husband and wife, married pair" (BES). Obsoleted by #1 above? (Notice that the word veru "married pair" comes from the same source that has venno rather than veru as the word for "husband".)

verno

husband

**verno noun "husband", misreading for venno, q.v. (BES)

venno

husband

venno noun "husband" (cited as **verno_ in the Etymologies as printed in LR, entry BES, but according to VT45:7, this is a misreading of Tolkien's manuscript)_. In a later source, the word for "husband" is given as veru, q.v.