arat

root. good, excellent, noble

arātā

adjective. high, lofty, noble

aran

root. good, excellent, noble

An extended root in 1957 Quenya Notes based on √AR “beyond, further than”, √ARAN was glossed “good, excellent, noble” but was principally used for Q. aran, S. aran “king” (PE17/147).

tāra

adjective. high

m(b)arat

root. doom, fate

This root and ones like it were connected to “fate” throughout Tolkien’s life. It first appeared as ᴱ√MṚTṚ or ᴱ√M(B)ṚTṚ “chance” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. mart “a piece of luck”, ᴱQ. mart- “it happens” and ᴱQ. marto “fortune, fate, lot” (QL/63). Thus in QL it seems to have more to do with happenstance than destiny, but in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon its derivatives were G. Bridwen “Fate personified”, G. mart(os) “portion, fate, lot”, G. martion “fated, doomed, fey”, and G. umbart or umrod “fate” (GL/24, 56, 75), so perhaps the root meaning had already begun to shift.

In The Etymologies of the 1930s the root appeared as ᴹ√MBARAT “fate” (Ety/MBARAT); this replaced an earlier unstrengthened version ᴹ√MAR-TA, as reflected in the change of the Noldorin form from N. marth >> N. barth (EtyAC/MBARAT), later still N. ammarth >> S. amarth (Ety/MBARAT; SA/amarth). In Notes on Galadriel’s Song (NGS) from the late 1950s or early 1960s Tolkien explicitly said that the root √MAR(AT) or √MBART “doom, fate” was not connected to √MBAR “dwell” (PE17/66), but in notes from the late 1960s he changed his mind and made an etymological connection between the two roots: see √MBAR for details.

ari

root. good, excellent, noble

An extended root in 1957 Quenya Notes based on √AR “beyond, further than”, √ARI was glossed “good, excellent, noble” but was principally used for the prefix Q. ari- (PE17/147). This prefix was glossed “good” in the 1957 Quenya Notes, but in notes on comparison (probably from the early 1960s) it was used as a superlative prefix (PE17/56-57). The corresponding S. superlative prefix seems to be ro- (PE17/147).

arāt-chír

masculine name. Noble Lord

@@@ not an actual ancient form, but only representative of the sounds changes that might have occurred

manrā

adjective. good

tā/taʒ

root. high, high, [ᴹ√] lofty; noble

This root and ones like it were used for “high” things for much of Tolkien’s life. It first appeared as unglossed ᴱ√TAHA in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. tā “high; high above, high up”, ᴱQ. tahōra or tayóra “lofty”, and ᴱQ. tāri “queen”; it had a variant form ᴱ√TAʕA where the ʕ might be a malformed Y (QL/87). The corresponding forms in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon were G. dâ “high” and G. dara “lofty” (GL/29), indicating the true form of the root was ᴱ√DAHA, since initial voiced stops were unvoiced (d- > t-) in Early Qenya (PE12/17). Primitive forms like ᴱ✶dagá > ᴱN. dâ/ᴱQ. tá “high” in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s indicates the root continued to begin with D for the following decade (PE13/141, 161).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien gave this root as ᴹ√TĀ/TAƷ “high, lofty; noble” with derivatives like ᴹQ. tára “lofty, high”, ᴹQ. tári “queen” and N. taen “height, summit of high mountain” (Ety/TĀ). In Definitive Linguistic Notes (DLN) from 1959 Tolkien gave the root as √TAG or Tā- “high”, and in notes from around 1967 Tolkien gave √TAƷ as the explanation of the initial element of Q. Taniquetil and contrasted it with √TĂR “stand” (PE17/186). In 1970 green-ink revisions to the Outline of Phonology (OP2), Tolkien wrote a marginal note giving √TAƷ > TĀ “high”, but this note was rejected with a statement “transfer to Gen. Structure. No [ʒ] existed in Eldarin” (PE19/72-73 note #22).

This last rejection seems to be part of Tolkien’s general vacillation on the nature and phonetic evolution of velar spirants in Primitive Elvish in 1968-70. For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I would assume the root form was √TAH or √TAƷ > √TĀ as the basis for “high” words, much like √MAH or √MAƷ > ✶mā was the basis for “hand” words.