indo (2) noun "house" (LT2:343), probably obsoleted by #1 above (in Tolkiens later Quenya, the word for "house" appears as coa).
Quenya
mélamar
home
indo
house
kemen
earth
kemen noun "earth"; see cemen.
mélamar
noun. (emotional) home
A term for one’s “emotional home” or “✱true home” from which one is currently separated, a combination of mel “love” and már “home” (PE17/109). For example, Valinor remained the mélamar for many of the Noldor despite their exile to Middle-earth. This word is adapted from S. milbar of the same meaning; see that entry for further discussion.
Cognates
- S. milbar “dear home, beloved dwelling [place]” ✧ PE17/109
Derivations
- S. milbar “dear home, beloved dwelling [place]” ✧ PE17/109
- ✶mēlā̆-mbar “beloved dwelling” ✧ PE17/109; PE17/164
Elements
Word Gloss mel- “to love” már “home, dwelling, habitation, home, dwelling, habitation; [ᴹQ.] house; earth” Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources S. milbar > mélamar [mēlambar] > [mēlamar] ✧ PE17/109
os
house, cottage
os (ost-) noun "house, cottage" (LT2:336; hardly valid in LotR-style Quenya writers may use coa or már)
már
home, house, dwelling
már (mar-) (2) noun "home, house, dwelling" (also "house" in the sense of family as in Mardil, q.v.). See mar above for references. In Mar-nu-Falmar, Mardil, and as final element in Eldamar, Fanyamar, Valimar, Vinyamar..
mar
earth
mar (1) noun "earth" (world), also "home, dwelling, mansion". Stem mard- (VT46:13, PE17:64), also seen in the ablative Mardello "from earth" (FS); the word is used with a more limited sense in oromardi "high halls" (sg. oromar, PM17:64), referring to the dwellings of Manwë and Varda on Mt. Taniquetil (Nam, RGEO:66). The initial element of Mardorunando (q.v.) may be the genitive mardo (distinguish mardo "dweller"). May be more or less identical to már "home, house, dwelling" (of persons or peoples; in names like Val(i)mar, Vinyamar, Mar-nu-Falmar, Mardil) (SA:bar, VT45:33, VT47:6). Már is however unlikely to have the stem-form mard-; a "Qenya" genitive maren appears in the phrase hon-maren, q.v., suggesting that its stem is mar-. A possible convention could therefore be to use már (mar-) for "home, house" (also when = household, family as in Mardil, q.v.), whereas mar (mard-) is used for for "earth, world". Early "Qenya" has mar (mas-) "dwelling of men, the Earth, -land" (LT1:251); notice that in LotR-style Quenya, a word in -r cannot have a stem-form in -s-.
már
noun. home, dwelling, habitation, home, dwelling, habitation; [ᴹQ.] house; earth
This is the basic Quenya word for a “home” or “dwelling”, derived from the root √MBAR “settle, dwell”.
Conceptual Development: This word dates back all the way to the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, where (archaic) ᴱQ. †mar (mas-) was glossed “dwelling of men, -land, the Earth” (QL/60). It appeared under the early root ᴱ√MBARA “dwell, live”, but that root was mingled with many others, and its stem form mas- indicates some unusual developments. The contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa instead has mař “dwelling, -land, †Earth” (PME/60), consistent with an earlier deleted form of the root, ᴱ√MAŘA [MAÐA] (QL/60).
In the Name-list to The Fall of Gondolin from the 1910s Tolkien had mar as a cognate to G. bar “dwelling” (PE15/21). In the Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s it was glossed “house” in the phrase ᴱQ. i·mar tye “that house (of yours)” (PE14/55). In the English-Qenya Dictionary of the 1920s mar was glossed “home”, where its plural form mari indicated a stem form of mar- (PE15/74).
In the Declension of Nouns of the 1930s, ᴹQ. mar “house” had a stem form of mard- (PE21/27), and on the title page of The Etymologies from 1937, Tolkien had mar(d)- “home, dwelling” from the root ᴹ√MBAR (EtyAC/MBAR). It appeared in the form Mardello “from Earth” in Fíriel’s Song from the mid-1930s, along with an uninflected form i-mar “the earth” (LR/72), but as mar- in the (1930s) genitive form hon-maren “heart of the house” (LR/63).
In Outline of Phonetic Development (OP1) from this 1930s, it appeared as már “habitation”, the first time that it had a long á (PE19/36). In Quenya Verbal System from 1948, már “house” appeared with long á in a couple phrases like már karnelya e·tulle “having built a house he came” (PE22/108). The word már “habitation” reappeared in the Outline of Phonology (OP2) of the 1950s (PE19/76).
Tolkien discussed the word már at length in notes from the 1960s on the root √MBAR, first writing:
> The usual word in Eldarin for a “home”, as the established residence of a family consisting of one or more associated buildings, was ✱mbā̆r (stem mbăr-), and ✱mbardā̆ (an adjectival formation). In Q mar (stem mard-), a blending of the two, was used like “residence” usually with a defining genitive, for the “great house” of a family. In place-names -mar (stem mār-) was used for a region settled by a community or group, as Eldamar “Elvenhome” the coastal region of Aman, settled by the Elves (PE17/164).
And then in a later version of the same notes:
> The simplest form of this base ✱mbără became a much used word or element in primitive Eldarin: which may be rendered “dwelling”. This application was probably a development during the period of the Great Journey to the Western Shores, during which many halls of varying duration were made by the Eldar at the choice of their leaders, as a whole, or for separate groups. This element survived in various forms in Quenya and Sindarin with sense changes due to the divergent history of the Eldar that passed over Sea and of those remaining in Beleriand. The principal forms were the primitive simple form PE ✱mbăr(a) > uninflected mbār, inflected mbar-; and the derivative form ✱mbardā ...
The former survived in Quenya in the archaic word már, which was used with a defining genitive or more often in genitival compound: as Ingwemar, Valimar, Eldamar ... This signified, when added to a personal name the “residence” of a family of which the head was the named person; it included not only the permanent buildings, developed by the Eldar in Aman, but also the surrounding attached land ... After the name of a people or “kindred” it referred to the whole area occupied or owned by them, in which their dwellings or “houses” were distributed (PE17/106).
These revised notes indicate that marda was a distinct word:
> The derivative form ✱mbardā became in Quenya marda “a dwelling”. This normally referred to the actual dwelling place, but was not limited to buildings, and could equally well be applied to dwellings of natural origin (such as caves or groves). It was nonetheless the nearest equivalent to “house” in most of its senses ... Not to the use of “house” as the name of a (small) separate building with a function such as bake-house, wood-house; nor to the use of “house” as a family especially of power or authority. The former in Quenya was usually koa. The latter was represented by words for “kindred” [nóre] (PE17/107).
Thus it seems in these notes, már = “residence”, marda = “dwelling” but coa = “house” as in a type of building.
In terms of its use in other words and phrases, mar or már is most notably an element in Eldamar “Elvenhome” (S/59), Val(i)mar “Dwelling of the Valar” (RGEO/62), and Mar Vanwa Tyaliéva “[ᴱQ.] Cottage of the Lost Play; House of Departed Mirth” (LT1/28; PE21/80). As for mard-, its most notable use was in oromardi “lofty halls” from the Namárië poem (LotR/377).
Although always meaning “home” or “dwelling” and always derived from √MBAR “dwell”, the various changes in the stem form between mar, mard- and már make the conceptual development difficult to trace. The rough timeline seems to be:
In the 1910s the stem was mař- >> mas-, becoming mar- in the 1920s.
In the 1930s the stem was mostly mard-, but in OP1 már (mar-) with long á was introduced and became more prevalent in the 1940s and 50s.
In the 1960s Tolkien decided that már (mar-) < ✱mbără and marda (mard-) < ✱mbardā were distinct words of similar meaning.
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya I would use már mainly in the sense “home, a place dwelled in”, as opposed to marda for “a dwelling” whether inhabited or not. In place names -mar can refer to the dwelling place of an entire people, or of an individual family. The word már might be used as “house” in the sense of the dwelling place of a family, but when referring specifically to the building, the word coa is more appropriate.
Cognates
- S. bâr “house, dwelling, home, house, dwelling, home; [N.] earth” ✧ PE17/164; SA/bar
Derivations
Element in
- Q. Atyamar “*Second Home”
- ᴺQ. avamarwa “homeless”
- Q. Eämbar “Sea-dwelling”
- Q. Eldamar “Elvenhome” ✧ PE17/106; PE17/106; PE17/164; SA/bar
- Q. Hecelmar “*Home of the Hecel”
- Q. Ingwemar “*Ingwë Home” ✧ PE17/106
- Q. Lumbar “?Shadow Home”
- Q. Mardil “Devoted to the House” ✧ SA/bar
- Q. Mar-nu-Falmar “Land under the Waves” ✧ SA/bar
- Q. mélamar “(emotional) home”
- Q. Mittalmar “Inlands”
- Q. Valimar “Dwelling of the Valar” ✧ PE17/106; SA/bar
- Q. Vinyamar “New Dwelling” ✧ SA/bar
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ✶mbăr(a) > mbār > már [mbara] > [mbār] > [mār] ✧ PE17/106 ✶mbar- > már [mbār] > [mār] ✧ PE19/076 Variations
- mār- ✧ PE17/164
cemi
earth, soil, land
cemi noun "earth, soil, land"; Cémi ("k")"Mother Earth" (LT1:257; the "Qenya" word cemi would correspond to cemen in LotR-style Quenya)
ambar
a-mbar
ambar (1) ("a-mbar") noun "oikumenē [Greek: the earth as the human habitation], Earth, world" (MBAR), stem ambar- (PE17:66), related to and associated with mar "home, dwelling" (VT45:33); in VT46:13 the latter glosses are possibly also ascribed to the word ambar itself (the wording is not clear). The form ambaren also listed in the Etymologies was presumably intended as the genitive singular at the time of writing (in LotR-style Quenya it would rather be the dative singular); in the printed version in LR, the misreading "ambaron" appears (see VT45:33). Ambar-metta noun "the end of the world" (EO); spelt ambarmetta in VT44:36. The element #umbar in Tarumbar "King of the World" (q.v.) would seem to be a variant of ambar, just like ambar #2 "doom" also alternates with umbar (see below).
farnë
dwelling
#farnë (2) noun "dwelling", in orofarnë (as translated in Letters:224, but in other notes of Tolkiens the word was interpreted "any growing thing or plant", PE17:83)
marda
dwelling
marda noun "dwelling" (PE17:107)
mar(da)
noun. dwelling, (great) house, residence, mansion, a thing or place dwelt in, home, dwelling, (great) house, residence, mansion, a thing or place dwelt in, home; [ᴱQ.] world
A word for “dwelling, mansion, hall” derived from √MBAR “dwell” (PE17/64), most notably as an element in oromardi “lofty halls” in the Namárië “poem” (LotR/377). Its plural mardi indicates a stem form of mard-, but its uninflected form appeared as both short mar (PE17/64, 163-4; PE21/80) and longer marda (PE17/107; PE21/76). Tolkien described its meaning more precisely in some notes from the 1960s:
> The derivative form ✱mbardā became in Quenya marda: “a thing or place dwelt in, dwelling” and since it could be applied to the actual dwelling-places or buildings (alone or grouped) approached the sense “house”. Though it did not in fact refer to “buildings”, and could equally well be applied to dwelling-places of natural origin, such as caves or groves (PE17/107).
And in an earlier version of these notes:
> The usual word in Eldarin for a “home”, as the established residence of a family consisting of one or more associated buildings, was ✱mbā̆r (stem mbăr-), and ✱mbardā (an adjectival formation). In Q mar (stem mard-), a blending of the two, was used like “residence”, usually with a defining genitive, for the “great house” of a family (PE17/164).
In Tolkien’s later writings, it seems this word was distinct from and coexisted with Q. már (mar-) “home” (PE17/106, 164).
Conceptual Development: This word for “dwelling” was often intermingled and confused with már “home”, making its conceptual development difficult to trace. There are some other earlier words for which some extension was added to √MBAR. In the 1910s ᴱQ. marda meant “world” as in ᴱQ. Talka Marda “Smith of the World” (LT1/180; 15/8); in The Qenya Phonology Tolkien said marda had a dialectical variant ᴱQ. mára (PE12/24) and in the Gnomish Lexicon it had the form Marwa “World” (GL/18).
The Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s had an adverbial variant ᴹQ. marta “home” of ᴹQ. mar “house” (PE21/25, 27); this adverbial form became marda “home” in Common Eldarin: Noun Structure of the early 1950s (PE21/76). In the 1930s more generally the stem form of short ᴹQ. mar was frequently mard- (PE21/27; EtyAC/MBAR; LR/72) but not always (LR/63). The coexistence of már and mard- was not clearly established until the 1960s (see above).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would use marda primarily as a “dwelling” as in “a thing dwelled in”, usable of buildings but also of natural dwellings like caves. Of constructed dwellings, it generally applies to larger or more elaborate dwellings such as mansions and halls, as in oromar “high hall”. I would assume the same was true of natural dwellings, with marda only applicable to a complex of inhabitable caverns rather than an individual cave. For the home of an individual or family I would use már “home”, and for the building itself I would use cöa “house” (dwelling or not).
I would use mard- as the stem form of this word as with its plural mardi. Strictly speaking its uninflected form would be mar < ✶mbardā̆ after the ancient loss of short final ă, but in practice this was generally reformed to marda to make it more distinct from már “home”. Thus sissë i luinë marda (ná) “here is the blue mansion” but tassë i ninqui mardi (nár) “there are the white mansions”.
Cognates
Derivations
- √MBAR “settle, dwell; establish, fix, decide, determine, make a decision, settle; establish, fix, decide, determine, make a decision; dwell, [ᴹ√] inhabit, [ᴱ√] live” ✧ PE17/064
- ✶mbarda ✧ PE17/107; PE17/107; PE17/163; PE17/164
- ✶mbar(ă) “dwelling, habitation” ✧ PE17/163; PE17/164
- √MBAR “settle, dwell; establish, fix, decide, determine, make a decision, settle; establish, fix, decide, determine, make a decision; dwell, [ᴹ√] inhabit, [ᴱ√] live”
- ✶mbard(a) “home, homeward” ✧ PE21/76
Element in
- ᴺQ. hlaimar “hospital”
- ᴺQ. mardaitë “homely, domestic”
- Q. Mardil “Devoted to the House”
- ᴺQ. mardo “dweller”
- Q. Mardorunando “*Redeemer of the World” ✧ VT44/17
- Q. Martamo “World-artificer”
- Q. Mar Tyaliéva “House of Mirth” ✧ PE21/80
- Q. Mar Vanwa Tyaliéva “House of Past (or Departed) Mirth” ✧ PE17/064; PE21/80
- ᴺQ. matimar “restaurant, (lit.) eating hall”
- ᴺQ. nammar “court, courthouse, (lit.) judgment-house”
- Q. oromar “lofty hall, high-mansion, high (lofty) dwelling” ✧ PE17/064
- Q. Tyalie Mar “House of Mirth” ✧ PE21/80
- ᴺQ. vanwiémar “museum, (lit.) hall of the past”
- ᴺQ. autamar “museum, (lit.) hall of the past”
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √MBAR > mar [mbarda] > [mbard] > [mard] > [mar] ✧ PE17/064 ✶mbardā > marda [mbardā] > [mardā] > [marda] ✧ PE17/107 ✶mbardā > marda [mbardā] > [mardā] > [marda] ✧ PE17/107 ✶mbar > mar [mbar] > [mar] ✧ PE17/163 ✶mbardă > mar [mbarda] > [mbard] > [mard] > [mar] ✧ PE17/163 ✶mbā̆r > mar [mbar] > [mar] ✧ PE17/164 ✶mbardā̆ > mar [mbarda] > [mbard] > [mard] > [mar] ✧ PE17/164 ✶mbard(a) > măr [mbarda] > [mbard] > [mard] > [mar] ✧ PE21/76 ✶mbard(a) > marda [mbardā] > [mardā] > [marda] ✧ PE21/76 Variations
- Mar ✧ MR/385; PE21/80
- mar ✧ PE17/064; PE17/064; PE17/064; PE17/163 (mar); PE17/163 (mar); PE17/164; PE17/164
- marda ✧ PE17/107; PE17/107; PE21/76
- măr ✧ PE21/76
maryë
adverb. at home, at home, *indoors
mélamar noun "home", Exilic Quenya word of emotional sense: place of ones birth or the familiar places from which one has been separated (PE17:109). Mélamarimma noun "Our Home", an expression used by Exilic Noldor for Aman.