#Coivienéni place-name, "Qenya" form of Cuiviénen, the Waters of Awakening (VT14:5)
Quenya
cuiviénen
place name. Water of Awakening
Cognates
- S. Nen Echui “Water of Awakening” ✧ SA/cuivië
Elements
Word Gloss cuivië “awakening” nén “water, water, [ᴱQ.] river” Variations
- Kuiviénen ✧ MR/071; MR/160; MRI/Kuiviénen; WJI/Cuiviénen; WJI/Koivië-néni
Coivienéni
coivienéni
cuivië
noun. life
cuivië
awakening
cuivië noun "awakening" (early "Qenya" coivië, q.v., but this word Tolkien later used = *"life"). In Cuiviénen, "Water of Awakening" (SA:cuivië, SA:nen, KUY; spelt with a k_ in the Etymologies). Somewhat surprisingly, cuivië is used to mean "life" in cuivie-lancassë ("k"), literally 'on the brink of life' ("of a perilous situation in which one is likely to fall into death") (VT42:8)_ The form coivië is used for "life" elsewhere.
cuivië
noun. awakening
A word for “awakening”, most notably an element in the word Cuiviénen “Water of Awakening” (S/48). It was derived from the root √KUY (Ety/KUY). In a few places it appeared as kuive instead (PE17/68; Ety/KUY).
Conceptual Development: The earliest form for “Waters of Awakening” was ᴱQ. Koivie-néni (LT1/85), and ᴱQ. koivie was glossed as “awakening” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/48). It was glossed “liveliness” in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon, however, and ᴱQ. qîvie was “awakening” (GL/29).
Element in
- Q. Cuiviénen “Water of Awakening” ✧ SA/cuivië
- Q. Cuivienyarna “Legend of the Awakening [of the Quendi]” ✧ WJ/420
Elements
Word Gloss KUY “awake; live, awake; live, [ᴹ√] come to life” -vë “abstract noun, adverb” Variations
- kuive ✧ PE17/068
- cuivië ✧ SA/cuivië
- Cuivie ✧ WJ/420
cuivë
awakening
cuivë ("k")noun "awakening" (KUY)
cuivë
noun. awakening
coivië
life
coivië _("k")_noun "life" (coivierya, *"his/her life", VT49:41, 42). In early material, the word is glossed "awakening" instead (LT1:257; in LotR-style Quenya cuivië, as in Cuiviénen)
coivië
noun. life, life, [ᴱQ.] liveliness; awakening
The usual word for “life” in Tolkien’s later writings based on the root √KOY (NM/84, 119; VT49/42), in one place appearing with the variant koive (PE17/68). In another place Tolkien instead used kuivie for “life” in the phrase kuivie-lankasse “on the brink of life”, reflecting Tolkien’s ongoing vacillation between √KOY and √KUY as the root for life.
Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. koivie was “awakening” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/48) as reflected in the name ᴱQ. Koivie-néni “Waters of Awakening” from this period (QL/48), but the word was glossed “liveliness” in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon (GL/29). The noun for “life, being alive” was ᴹQ. kuile in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√KUY “come to life, awake” (Ety/KUY), but was usually coivie in Tolkien’s writings from the 1950s and 60s, as noted above.
Neo-Quenya: I prefer √KOY as the root for “life” for purposes of Neo-Eldarin, so I’d use coivie as the noun “life, liveliness”, and use cuivië for “awakening” as seen in the later form of the name Q. Cuiviénen “Water of Awakening” (S/48).
Derivations
- √KOY “*live, have life, [ᴹ√] live, have life”
Element in
- ᴺQ. coivenqua “lively, vibrant, vivacious, (lit.) full of life”
- Q. cuivië-lancassë “on the brink of life” ✧ VT42/08
- Q. nai amanya onnalya ter coivierya “*may your (sg.) child be blessed throughout his/her life” ✧ VT49/42
- Q. nai calambar onnalda ter coivierya “*may your (pl.) child be light-fated throughout his/her life” ✧ VT49/42
Variations
- koive ✧ PE17/068
- koivie ✧ PE17/068
- kuivie ✧ VT42/08
coivë
noun. life
cuilë
life, being alive
cuilë ("k")noun "life, being alive" (KUY)
coi
life
coi ("k")"life" (LT1:257; in Tolkien's later Quenya cuilë)
cuiviénen
Cuiviénen
The Quenya name Cuiviénen (cuivië "awakening" + nen "water") means "water of awakening".[source?]
The lake where the Elves first awoke (S/48), a compound of cuivië “awakening” and nén “water” (SA/cuivië, nen).
Conceptual Development: In the earliest Lost Tales, the name appeared as a plural: ᴱQ. Koivie-néni “Waters of Awakening” (LT1/85). In The Lays of Beleriand, the name was changed to singular ᴱQ. Cuiviénen (LB/23). It keep this form in most later writings, sometimes written with a “C” and sometimes with a “K”, as in ᴹQ. Kuiviénen (LR/168, Ety/KUY).