ekko

noun. spine, thorn, point

A noun for “spine” in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√EK (Ety/EK; EtyAC/EK). In The Etymologies as published in The Lost Road it was given the gloss “spear” (LR/355), but Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynne corrected this to “spine” in their Addenda and Corrigenda to the Etymologies (VT45/12). In notes on The Feanorian Alphabet from this same time period, ekko was glossed “point, spine, thorn” (PE22/23).

Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon and Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa of the 1910s had ᴱQ. ekke (ekki-) “thorn” derived from the early root ᴱ√EKE (QL/35; PME/35). Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s had ᴱQ. ehta as a cognate to ᴱN. aith “thorn” in a draft entry (PE13/136), likely based on ✱ekta.

Cognates

• N. ech “spine, *spiny quill or bristle” ✧ Ety/EK

Derivations

• ᴹ√EK “spear, (sharp) point, thorn” ✧ Ety/EK

Element in

• ᴺQ. eccahta “hawthorn, (lit.) thorn-hedge”
• ᴺQ. eccalda “cactus, (lit.) spine tree”
• ᴺQ. eccoia “thorny”

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ√EK > ekko	[ekko]	✧ Ety/EK