The Etymologies: Index by Elvish Words

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The former index to the Etymologies is a list of the English glosses given in this work, so that the Elvish word for a certain concept is easily located. I hereby complement it with a second index, listing all the Elvish words in Etym. While the Elvish words are easier to locate than their English glosses, since they usually bear at least some semblance to the stems they are derived from, some words may also turn up in unexpected places. For instance, I guess it is far from obvious to most people that many Quenya words beginning in L are to be found under stems beginning in D.

Tolkien's spelling is retained, also where it differs from the spelling used in LotR (like k, q, ks rather than c, qu, x in Quenya; otherwise, I recommend the LotR spelling). The digraphs th, dh are used instead of the special letters (edh, thorn), that are used a few times in Etym.

Brackets mark words that were struck out by Tolkien, e.g.

[Barada] (T) BARÁD
When not only the word, but also the stem in question was struck out, the entire entry is bracketed:
[eske (Q) EZGE]
In Etym, many Quenya words have genitives in -en, -n. Such words are listed to demonstrate how the words behave when they are inflected; sometimes the stem changes. However, while writing LotR Tolkien revised the Quenya case endings, and -(e)n now came to be the dative ending instead of the genitive ending. In accordance with this revision, the words in question are identified as datives ("dat. sg.") in this index, though Tolkien intended them to be genitives at the time Etym was written.

Sometimes, both an earlier and a later form of a word is given in Etym. (In many cases, the change has to do with Sindarin nd becoming nn or similar assimilations.) I have used the sign > for "later becoming":

brand > brann (S) BARÁD

Similarly, < means "that was earlier...":

brann < brand (S) BARÁD

The abbreviations used are the same as in the other index, but they may be repeated here:

A - Archaic/Ancient/Ancestral/Asterisked, used to identify the primitive forms listed. Such forms are usually, though not always, asterisked as "unattested". Note that the abbreviation A does not actually appear in the text in LR. Most of the "A" words must be assumed to be actually PQ, or in some cases possibly Eld (see below), but these abbreviations are rarely used in the Etymologies.
Dan - Danian (Nandorin)
Dor - Doriathrin
Eld - Eldarin, presumably Common Eldarin, the common ancestor of all the Eldarin (as opposed to Avarin) tongues - including the two most prominent, Quenya and Sindarin.
Ilk - Ilkorin, the language of the Eldar that remained in Beleriand while the other went over the sea to Aman. The Ilkorindi thus correspond to the Sindar in Tolkiens final conception, and indeed the status of the Ilkorin language in the mature mythos is uncertain: its place may have been usurped by another language when Tolkien turned "Noldorin" into Sindarin and transferred this language from Aman to Middle-earth (see S below).
L - "Lindarin", read: Vanyarin. (Tolkien originally intended Lindar as a name of the First Clan, but later it became a name of the Third Clan, the Teleri. In any case, this abbreviation only occurs twice, under ING and ÑOL.)
OS - Old Sindarin, "ON" in the text in LR (see S below).
Oss - Ossiriandeb (only occurs once, in the entry LÁWAR).
PQ - Primitive Quendian, the original language invented by the Elves at Cuiviénen, the ultimate ancestor of all the Elvish tongues (cf. A above).
Q - Quenya, "Qenya".
R - Root meaning, a gloss applied to the primitive stem (the head of the entry) itself. Note that the abbreviation R does not actually appear in the text of LR.
S - Sindarin, Grey-elven. In the text in LR, the abbreviation "N" is used instead: In the thirties and the forties, Tolkien was still clinging to the idea that the Welsh-sounding language in his mythology was Noldorin, the language that the Noldor developed in Valinor (while Quenya was the tongue of the First Clan only). When he was completing LotR, Tolkien finally decided (or realized) that this was the language of the Grey-elves in Middle-earth instead. In accordance with this revision we use the abbreviation S instead of N, and likewise OS, Old Sindarin, where the text has ON for "Old Noldorin".
T - Telerin

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