ar (2) noun "day" (PE17:148), apparently short for árë, occurring in the names of the Valinorean week listed below. Tolkien indicated that ar in these names could also be arë when the following element begins in a consonant (VT45:27). Usually the word for "day" in LotR-style Quenya is rather aurë (or ré), q.v.
Quenya
ar-
brightest
ar(i)-
prefix. superlative prefix; good, superlative prefix; good; [ᴱQ.] intensive
Derivations
Element in
- Q. arimaitë “skilful, [supremely] skillful, *gifted”
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √ARI > ari- [ari-] ✧ PE17/147 Variations
- ar ✧ PE17/056; PE17/056
- ari ✧ PE17/056; PE17/056; PE17/056
- ari- ✧ PE17/056; PE17/057; PE17/147
ar
day
aurë
sunlight, day
aurë noun "sunlight, day" (SA:ur), "day (of light), a day of special meaning or festival" (VT49:45). locative auressë "in (the) morning" in Markirya, allative aurenna *"on the day" (VT49:43-45). Also compare amaurëa.
árë
day
árë noun "day" (PM:127) or "sunlight" (SA:arien). Stem ári- _(PE17:126, where the word is further defined as "warmth, especially of the sun, sunlight"). Also name of tengwa #31; cf. also ar # 2. Originally pronounced ázë; when /z/ merged with /r/, the letter became superfluous and was given the new value ss, hence it was re-named essë (Appendix E)_. Also árë nuquerna *"árë reversed", name of tengwa #32, similar to normal árë but turned upside down (Appendix E). See also ilyázëa, ilyárëa under ilya. In the Etymologies, this word has a short initial vowel: arë pl. ari (AR1)
árë
noun. sunlight, warmth (especially of the sun); day
A word for “sunlight” and “warmth (especially of the sun)” as well as the older name of tengwa #31 (k), which was originally used for the sound [z] matching the archaic pronunciation of this name: †áze (LotR/1123). When this sound fell out of use in Quenya (becoming r) the tengwa was repurposed for [ss] and given a new name: Q. essë. The word árë was derived from the root √AS “warmth” (PE17/18, 148; VT43/18).
Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies of the 1930s, ᴹQ. are has the sense “day” as a derivative of the root ᴹ√AR of the same meaning (Ety/AR¹), and it appears with this gloss in some later writings as well (PE17/148, PM/127). By the time Tolkien was writing The Lord of the Rings appendices, though, he had changed the sense of this word to “sunlight” as described above. The sense “day” was transferred to the words aurë and ré.
Cognates
- S.
ast“light or heat of the sun” ✧ PE17/018Derivations
Element in
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources Q. áze > áre [āze] > [āre] ✧ LotR/1123 ✶áse > áze > áre [āse] > [āze] > [āre] ✧ PE17/018 √AS > āze > āre [āse] > [āze] > [āre] ✧ PE17/148 √AS > ar [ase] > [aze] > [are] > [ar] ✧ PE17/148 √as- > árë [āse] > [āze] > [āre] ✧ SA/arien √AS > áze > áre [āse] > [āze] > [āre] ✧ VT43/18 Variations
- áre ✧ LotR/1123; PE17/018; PE17/126; VT43/18
- áze ✧ LotR/1123 (áze)
- āre ✧ PE17/126; PE17/148
- ar ✧ PE17/148
- arë ✧ PM/127
an(da)-
prefix. superlative prefix
Ae
day
Ae (Quenya?) noun "day" (LEP/LEPEN/LEPEK - ae was written over ar [# 2] in the names of the Valinorean week, but ar was not struck out.)
ala
day
[ala (7) noun "day", also alan "daytime". The forms allen, alanen listed after these words could be inflected forms of them, genitive "of daytime", constracted (allen = al'nen) and uncontracted. However, Tolkien struck out all of this (VT45:13).]
ré
day
ré noun "day" (of the sun), a full 24-hour cycle (Appendix D) composed of aurë (day, daylight) and lómë "night" (VT49:45). Short -rë in compounds like Ringarë (q.v.). Allative rénna (VT49:45).
ar- (2), also ari-, prefix for superlative (compare arya #1, 2), hence arcalima "brightest", arimelda *"dearest" (PE17:56-57). In the grammar described in the source, this prefix was to express superlative as the highest degree (in actual comparison), whereas the alternative prefix an- rather expressed "very" or "exceedingly" with a more purely augmentative or adverbial force, but these distinctions do not seem to have been clearly present at all stages of Tolkiens work. See an- #2, am- #2.