foa

breath, puff of breath

foa (1) noun "breath, puff of breath" (VT47:35, 36)

foa

hoard, treasure

foa (2) noun "hoard, treasure" (LT2:340; perhaps obsoleted by #1 above)

föa

noun. breath, puff of breath

A word appearing as fā in 1968 notes on primitive monosyllables as a derivative of ✶phā “breath, puff of breath” (VT47/35). Tolkien said this word survived in Quenya, but in a later sentence he wrote Q. fawa, foa, perhaps indicating its more common form was foa. The form foa appeared unglossed in 1964 notes on Dalath Dirnen (DD), and also in 1957 Quenya Notes (QN) as a derivative of √PHAW “emit (foul breath etc.)” and an element in foalóke, probably = “✱breath-dragon” (PE17/181). As such, I consider foa the most likely Quenya form and “breath, puff of breath” its most likely meaning.

Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, this word appeared as ᴱQ. foa “hoard, treasure” under the early root ᴱ√FOƷO “hide, hoard, store up, lay up in secret”, also as an element in ᴱQ. Foalôke as the name of a dragon (QL/38).

Cognates

• S. faw “*breath, puff of breath” ✧ PE17/181

Derivations

• √PHAW “emit (foul breath), *breath, puff of breath, breath, puff of breath; blow, emit (foul breath); [ᴹ√] gape” ✧ PE17/181
  • √PHA “exhalations (as mists upon water or steams and the like)”
• ✶phā “breath, puff of breath” ✧ VT47/35
  • √PHA “exhalations (as mists upon water or steams and the like)”
• ✶phawa ✧ VT47/35
  • √PHAW “emit (foul breath), *breath, puff of breath, breath, puff of breath; blow, emit (foul breath); [ᴹ√] gape”
  • √PHA “exhalations (as mists upon water or steams and the like)”

Element in

• Q. föalócë “*breath-dragon” ✧ PE17/181

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
√PHAW > foa	[pʰawa] > [ɸawa] > [ɸoa] > [foa]	✧ PE17/181
✶phā > fā	[pʰā] > [ɸā] > [fā]	✧ VT47/35
✶fawa > foa	[pʰawa] > [ɸawa] > [ɸoa] > [foa]	✧ VT47/35

Variations

• foa ✧ PE17/181; VT47/35
• fā ✧ VT47/35

fá

noun. breath, puff of breath

haura, hauza

noun. hoard

hoard, store