A verb translated “slowly fade away” in notes associated with the Markirya “poem” of the 1960s, a frequentative form of fir- “die, fade” (MC/223). In the poem itself it appeared in its active participle form fifírula “fading” (MC/222).
Conceptual Development: The version of the ᴱQ. Oilima Markirya poem from around 1930 had histane “fading” (MC/213), presumably the active participle of a verb ᴱQ. ✱hista- “to fade”. The verb was probably based on the early root ᴱ√HISI having to do with “mist” and “dusk”; compare ᴱQ. hiswa “dim, fading” from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/40).
fifíru- vb.; this is evidently the frequentative (see sisíla-) form of fir-; according to MC:223 it means "slowly fade away"; participle fifírula in Markirya (translated "fading")