The verb anta- was the basic Quenya word for “give” for much of Tolkien’s life, usually associated with the root √AN “towards”. ᴱQ. anta- “gives” first appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√ANA “give, send towards” (QL/31). In The Etymologies of the 1930s ᴹQ. anta- “give” was derived from the root ᴹ√ANA “to, towards” and its primitive form ᴹ✶anta- was glossed “to present, give” (Ety/ANA¹). In this same document Tolkien considered deriving anta- from ᴹ√YAN “give” instead (EtyAC/YAN²).
In Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 anta- was again derived from √ANA/NĀ, but in that note the root and the verb had the extra (archaic?) sense “add to” in connection with the use of an- as the Quenya intensive prefix (PE17/146). In notes from around 1967 Tolkien said it was a blend of ✶an-tā “✱make go towards” and ✶am-tā “enlarge, increase” from √AMA; in this document am- was the intensive prefix (PE17/91). Tolkien seems to have gone back to an-intensives by 1969 (c.f. anírime “most beautiful”, PE23/133) and in Late Notes on Verbs (LVS) from 1969 anta- was again based on ✶antā- “cause a thing/person to go to an object, send”, but develop its sense “give” due the influence of √HAN “enhance, enrich, add to”.
In both the 1967 and 1969 notes, Tolkien indicated the object of the verb anta- could either be the thing given or the recipient. If the object was the thing given, the recipient was in the dative: antanen parma sen “I gave a book to him”. If the object was the recipient, the thing given was in the instrumental: antanenyes parmanen “I presented him with a book”. In other notes from the late 1960s Tolkien said that anta-:
> ... was also often used with an “ironic tone” to refer to missiles, so that the sentence antanen hatal sena “I cast a spear at him” might also [more literally] mean “I gave him a spear (as a present)” (VT49/14).
Tolkien often used the verb anta- as an example for verb inflections and the use of the direct and/or indirect objects, particularly in the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) of 1948 and the Early Qenya Grammar (EQG) of the 1920s, though the exact formations varied as Tolkien’s ideas of his languages evolved. Tolkien usually gave anta- a weak past tense antane “gave” (PE17/91; VT49/14), but also gave it an archaic strong past tense †áne which was the basis for its Sindarin past form S. ôn “gave” (PE17/147).
anta- (1) vb. "give" (ANA1, MC:215, 221), pa.t. antanë (antanen "I gave", VT49:14) or †ánë, perfect ánië (PE17:147, cf. QL:31). According to VT49:14, Tolkien noted that anta- was sometimes often with an "ironic tone" to refer to missiles, so that antanen hatal sena "I gave him a spear (as a present)" was often used with the real sense of "I cast a spear at him". Usually the recipient of the thing given is mentioned in the dative or allative case (like sena in this example), but there is also a construction similar to English "present someone with something" in which the recipient is the object and the gift appears in the instrumental case: antanenyes parmanen, "I presented him with a book" (PE17:91). The verb occurs several times in FS: antalto"they gave"; strangely, no past tense marker seems to be present (see -lto for the ending); antar a pl. verb translated "they gave", though in LotR-style Quenya it would rather be the present tense "give" (pl.); antaróta "he gave it" (anta-ró-ta "gave-he-it"), another verb occurring in Fíriel's Song, once again with no past tense marker. Also antáva "will give", future tense of anta- "give"; read perhaps *antuva in LotR-style Quenya; similarly antaváro* "he will give" (LR:63) might later have appeared as antuvas (with the ending -s rather than "Qenya" -ro for "he"). Antalë imperative "give thou" (VT43:17), sc. anta "give" + the element le "thou", but this was a form Tolkien abandoned. Apparently ana** was at one point considered as another imperative "give", but Tolkien rewrote the text in question (VT44:13), and the normal patterns would suggest *á anta with an independent imperative particle.