filit

noun. small bird, sparrow

A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “small bird” derived from the root ᴹ√PHILIK (Ety/PHILIK). It also appeared in Primitive Quendian Structure: Final Consonants from 1936 with the gloss “sparrow, small bird” where it coexisted with similarly formed ᴹQ. filinke, elsewhere glossed “finch” (PE21/56). Its plural was filiki indicating a stem form filik- [filic-].

Conceptual Development: In both the Qenya Lexicon and Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa of the 1910s the word for “sparrow” was ᴱQ. imbilink, an elaboration (diminutive?) of ᴱQ. imbile “swarm, flock, often of small birds” (QL/41), so perhaps “✱small swarmer”. ᴹQ. filit (filik-) first appeared in a set of noun declensions from the early 1930s, but it was not translated (PE21/52).

Neo-Quenya: It is not entirely clear whether filit “sparrow” and filinke “finch” coexisted with these meanings, but I would retain both for purposes of Neo-Quenya, and assume filincë “finch” is slightly diminutive in sense.

filet

noun. cobweb

A word in in the Declension of Nouns of the early 1930s glossed {“fern” >>} “cobweb” (PE21/33 and note #3). Its initial gloss was probably a later iteration of ᴱQ. filqe “fern” from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/38), and in later writings filit (filik-) was a word for “small bird, sparrow” (Ety/PHILIK; PE21/56), so this was likely a transient form.

líne

noun. cobweb, cobweb; [ᴱQ.] cotton, thread

A noun for “cobweb” in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from primitive ᴹ✶slignē under the root ᴹ√SLIG (Ety/SLIG).

Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s Tolkien gave ᴱQ. līnẹ “thread, cotton” under the early root ᴱ√LI+ya (QL/53).

Neo-Quenya: This word is somewhat questionable, since in later writings, Tolkien derived spider words from √ungu-. However, I prefer to interpret ᴹ√(S)LIG as having to do with threads for purposes of Neo-Eldarin, and “cobweb” could be from a sense “collection of threads”. With this interpretation, I think it is also plausible to include the sense “cotton” from Early Qenya, though for “thread” I’d use other words like Q. ipsin or [ᴹQ.] lia. Helge Fauskanger suggested (QQ/líne) that this word should be ✱hlíne given primitive initial sl-, but there is another primitive form ᴹ✶ligā under the root, so perhaps the Quenya derivatives were (a) based from a variant root ᴹ√LIG or (b) reflect the Third Age Quenya pronunciation as voiced l (LotR/1114).

qesset

noun. pillow

A noun for “pillow” in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√KWES having to do with feathers (Ety/KWES). Given its cognate N. pesseg, its stem form is probably quessec- as suggested by Helge Fauskanger (QQ/quesset).