háva

noun. bread (collective), [unleavened] bread (collective)

A collective word for “bread” appearing in notes on the origin of Elvish waybread written in 1968 (NM/295). It was derived from primitive ✶khābā which Tolkien said “originally applied to most vegetable foods, but after the coming of corn was restricted to those made from grain”. Tolkien also specified that the result of its baking was “(unleavened) bread”.

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would reserve this word for unleavened flat bread, and would use massa for baked bread with yeast and coimas as the Quenya term for the more specialized Elvish waybread more typically known as [S.] lembas.

hávanissi

collective name. Bread-women

A term for the women responsible for grinding flour and baking bread, a combination of háva “bread” and the plural of nissë “woman”, a notion tied to the mythical origin of lembas (NM/295). A similar term was Massánië “Breadgiver” (PM/404), but that was limited to noble elf women.