maitë

adjective. handy, skillful; having a hand, handed; shapely, handy, skillful, [ᴹQ.] skilled; [Q.] shapely, well-shaped; (as suffix) having a hand, handed

An adjective for “handy, skilful” in notes on Eldarin Hands, Fingers and Numerals from the late 1960s (VT47/6). ᴹQ. maite had a similar gloss “handy, skilled” in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√MAƷ “hand” (Ety/MAƷ). Tolkien gave its primitive form as ✶magiti in the 1960s (VT41/10) and as ᴹ✶maʒiti in the 1930s (Ety/MAƷ). Either way, it seems to be a combination of Q. má “hand” and the adjective suffix -itë, with a stem form of maiti-.

As a suffix in compounds, it has the sense “handed” as in Q. formaitë “righthanded” (Ety/PHOR) and Q. morimaitë “black-handed” (PE17/110). As prefix, however, it seems to have meant “shapely, well shaped” as in Maitimo “Well-shaped One” (PM/353). It seems likely the same would be true if the adjective were applied to an object, such as maitë macil “a well-shaped [skillfully made] sword”, as opposed to maitë ohtar “a handy/skillful warrior”.

Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, ᴱQ. maqa or maqalea meant “handy, skilled (with hands)” while ᴱQ. mavoite (mavoisi-) meant “having hands”, both under the early root ᴱ√MAHA (QL/57). The Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s Tolkien had ᴱQ. maite “handed” as an element in ᴱQ. erumaite “one handed” (PE14/51, 84; PE16/140). ᴹQ. maite appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as noted above, but with the abnormal plural form maisi (Ety/MAƷ) that seems to be remnant of Early Qenya phonetic developments from the 1910s.