car

deed

car (card-) (3) ("k")noun "deed" (rewritten >) "building, house" (KAR). Cf. carda.

car-

verb. do, make

cár

head

cár (cas-) ("k")noun "head" (KAS).The given stem-form appears doubtful within the phonological framework of LotR-style Quenya. Probably we should read cas with stem car- (PE14:69 indeed reads "kas head, pl. kari", and VT49:17 quotes the sg. "kas" from a post-LotR source). Compare other forms found in late sources: hlas "ear" with stem hlar- (PE17:62) and olos "dream", pl. olori (UT:396). In Tolkiens early "Qenya", post-vocalic -s became -r at the end of words but was preserved when another vowel followed. His later scheme either lets -r appear in both positions, or reverses the scenario altogether (hence olos, olor-). It would seem that the forms cár, cas- were distractedly carried over into the Etymologies from the Qenya Lexicon (kar, kas-, QL:45) even though they presuppose an earlier version of the phonology. An apparent variant form in late material, cára from earlier cáza ("k"), however fits the later phonology since intervocalic s would become z > r (PE17:188).

carda

deed

carda noun "deed" (PE17:51). Cf. car #3. The word may contain the ending -da (q.v.) denoting the result of the corresponding verbal action.

carda

noun. deed

carda

noun. deed

Quenya noun for a “deed”, a combination of the verb car- “to do” and the verbal suffix -da used for the product of an action (PE17/51; PE22/152), thus literally “✱a thing done”.

Conceptual Development: Perhaps the earliest precursor of this word is ᴱQ. karma “shape, fashion; act, deed” in the Qenya Lexicon from the 1910s of similar derivation (QL/45). In The Etymologies from the 1930s, the word appeared as ᴹQ. kar (kard-), but this gloss was rejected and replaced by ᴹQ. kar “building” (Ety/KAR). The form karma “deed” also appeared in some later writings, but was rejected (PE22/138).

Cognates

• S. carth “deed”

Elements

Word	Gloss
car-	“to do, make, to do, make, [ᴹQ.] build”
-da	“product of an action”

Variations

• karda ✧ PE17/051; PE22/152
• karma ✧ PE22/138 (karma)

carma

noun. deed

cára

noun. head

cas

head

cas ("k")"head" (VT49:17), cf. also deleted [cas] ("k")noun "top, summit" (VT45:19). This noun should evidently have the stem-form car-. See cár.

cas

noun. head, head, [ᴱQ.] top, summit

This is the Quenya word for “head”, with a stem form of car- because medial s generally became z and then r, but the s was preserved when final. This word can refer to the head of people and animals, as well as the metaphorical “head” (or top) of other things, in much the same way that Q. tál “foot” can refer to their base.

Conceptual Development: This word was established very early in Tolkien’s writing, being derived from the root ᴱ√KASA “head” all the way back in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/45), but its exact form varied as Tolkien changed his mind on the phonetic development of s in Quenya. Its form in the Qenya Lexicon was in fact ᴱQ. kar (kas-), since in Early Qenya period medial s survived and it was final s that became r (PE12/26). This kar (kas-) was the usual word for head in the 1910s and 20s, but in the typescript version of the Early Qenya Grammar Tolkien instead revised it to ᴱQ. kas (kast-) “head” (PE14/72 and note #5).

In noun declensions from the late 1920s and early 1930s, Tolkien instead had cas (car-), reflecting a conceptual shift in the phonologic development of s (PE13/112-113; PE21/22). However, for reasons unclear, the form ᴹQ. kár (kas-) was restored in The Etymologies written around 1937 under the root ᴹ√KAS “head” (Ety/KEM), despite s > z > r being the normal medial phonetic development in this period (PE19/33). This abnormal form slipped into The Lord of the Rings itself as part of the name Q. Eldacar “Elfhelm” (LotR/1038).

Tolkien generally used the form cas for “head” in his later writings (PE19/103; VT49/17), but in his notes on Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings from the late 1950s or early 1960s, Tolkien was forced to contrive another explanation for Eldacar:

> What is -kar in names. How could it stand for helm? E.g. as stem ✱kāsā (√KAS, head) would give kāra, but in compound forms -kāsă > -kas. Would not an ă be lost before voicing of s or at least before z > r (PE17/114).

In this note Tolkien considered having Q. carma “helm” < kas-mā, but discarded the idea since he felt karma “tool or weapon” < KAR “do, make” + mā was the more likely meaning. He then said “Eldă|kāzā in compounds to -kār(ă) > -kar” despite its phonological implausibility, and indeed kāza/kára appeared in a discussion of helms within 1964 notes on Dalath Dirnen (DD: PE17/188).

As for the sense “top”, there is better evidence for it among Tolkien’s earlier writings, such as the glosses “head, top” in Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s (PE14/79) and the early-1930s allative form kasta “up (to the top)” (PE21/22). I see no reason to assume this alternate meaning did not survive in Tolkien’s later conception of the language.

Derivations

• ✶kas “head” ✧ PE17/188
  • √KAS “head”

Element in

• ᴺQ. candóla “crown of head”
• Q. carma “helm”
• ᴺQ. caraxo “skull, *(lit.) head-bone”
• ᴺQ. quaccas “tadpole, (lit.) frog head”

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
✶kāza > kára	[kāsa] > [kāza] > [kāra]	✧ PE17/188

Variations

• kára ✧ PE17/188
• kas ✧ PE19/103; VT49/17

ampano

building

ampano noun "building" (especially of wood), "wooden hall" (PAN; alternative form umpano, VT45:36, which Tolkien in one case altered to ampano, VT46:8). In the pre-classical Tengwar system presupposed in the Etymologies, ampano was also the name of tengwa #6 (VT46:8), which letter Tolkien would later call umbar instead (changing its value from mp to mb).

ampano

noun. building, construction, edifice

finta-

to make, finish off, or decorate a thing with delicate work

finta- (1) vb. "to make, finish off, or decorate a thing with delicate work" (PE17:17)

car-

verb. to do

carn

noun. deed

A Sindarin noun for a “deed”, attested only in its lenited form garn within the word othgarn “misdeed” (PE17/151). The alternate form carth “deed” is perhaps better attested.

Element in

• S. othgarn “misdeed, misdeed, *sin” ✧ PE17/151

caro

verb. do! make!

carth

noun. deed

Sindarin noun for a “deed”, attested only in its lenited plural form gerth within the word úgarth “trespass” (VT44/28), which probably more literally means “✱misdeed”. This word is not completely compatible with its Quenya cognate Q. carda “deed” from primitive ✶kardā, which in Sindarin should produce ✱cardh. Perhaps the Sindarin word had a slightly different primitive form ✱✶kartā. The expect form cardh might appear as an element in the variant form athragardh of S. athragared “interaction”.

Conceptual Development: Perhaps the earliest precursor of this word is G. carm “act, deed, exploit” in the Gnomish Lexicon from the 1910s (GL/25; PE13/111), cognate of contemporaneous ᴱQ. karma “shape, fashion; act, deed” (QL/45). In the Early Noldorin word lists from the 1920s, this word was revised to ᴱN. carbh “deed” (PE13/140), reflecting Tolkien’s changing conception of the phonetic development of final -m in Noldorin. In The Etymologies from the 1930s, the word appeared as N. carth or carð “deed” (cardh), but these forms were rejected and replaced by N. car(ð) “building” (Ety/KAR).

Cognates

• Q. carda “deed”

Element in

• ᴺS. carthas “activity”
• S. úgarth “trespass, *(lit.) misdeed” ✧ VT44/28

-dhol

head

_ suff. _head (often applied to hills or mountains that had _not _a sharp apex). >> Fanuidhol

dol

noun. head

dol

head

_ n. _head (often applied to hills or mountains that had _not _a sharp apex). >> -dhol, doll, Dol-fanui, Fanuidhol

doll

head

_ n. _head (often applied to hills or mountains that had _not _a sharp apex). >> -dhol, dol, Dol-fanui, Fanuidhol

dol

noun. hill or mountain

car

make

(i gâr, i cherir), pa.t. agor (do, build) (WJ:415)

car

do

car- (i gâr, i cherir), pa.t. agor (make, build) (WJ:415),

car

do

(i gâr, i cherir), pa.t. agor (make, build) (WJ:415)

car

building

car or cardh (i gar[dh], o char[dh]) (house), pl. cerdh (i cherdh) or cair (i chair). Note: cardh also means "deed, feat". Therefore, the form car (or adab) may be preferred for clarity.

car

building

or cardh (i gar[dh], o char[dh]) (house), pl. cerdh (i cherdh) or cair (i chair). Note: cardh also means "deed, feat". Therefore, the form car (or adab) may be preferred for clarity.

cardh

deed

cardh (i gardh, o chardh), pl. cerdh (i cherdh). Note: cardh may also mean "house, building".

cardh

deed

(i gardh, o chardh), pl. cerdh (i cherdh). Note: cardh may also mean "house, building".

úgarth

ill deed

(sin), pl. úgerth (VT44:23)

adab

building

1) adab (house), pl. edaib. In ”Noldorin”, the plural was edeb_. _2)

adab

building

(house), pl. edaib. In ”Noldorin”, the plural was edeb. 2)

cad-

z2# verb. to shape; mold

Derived from the primitive root '√KAT' found in compound of 'etkat-': Out-Shape (later becoming Sindarin Echad: To Fashion). Cognate of Quenya Cat-.

dôl

head

dôl (i dhôl, construct dol) (hill), pl. dŷl (i nŷl). Note: In the Etymologies, this word was derived from a root with initial nd- (NDOL), which would make the mutations different (i nôl, pl. i ndŷl). However, the later name Fanuidhol "Cloudyhead" apparently indicates that the lenited form of this d was later to be dh (whereas it would be n if the former derivation had been maintained).

dôl

head

(i dhôl, construct dol) (hill), pl. dŷl (i nŷl). Note: In the Etymologies, this word was derived from a root with initial nd- (NDOL), which would make the mutations different (i nôl, pl. i ndŷl). However, the later name Fanuidhol "Cloudyhead" apparently indicates that the lenited form of this d was later to be dh (whereas it would be n if the former derivation had been maintained).****

echad

make

(i echad, in echedir) (fashion, shape), pa.t. echant (VT45:19)

heria

set vigorously out to do

(i cheria, i cheriar) (have an impulse, be compelled to do something, begin suddenly and vigorously) (VT45:22)

dadbenn

do

(downhill, sloping down, inclined), lenited dhadbenn, pl. dedbinn. Verb

bund

noun. head

Element in

• Kh. bund “head” ✧ PE17/036
• Kh. Bundushathûr “Cloudy-head” ✧ PE17/036; TI/174

Variations

• Bundu ✧ PE17/036
• Bund(u) ✧ PE17/036

kar

root. do, make, build, do, make, build, [ᴹ√] construct

Tolkien introduced the root √KAR with the sense “do, make” very early, and it retained this form and meaning for his entire life. It appeared as ᴱ√KARA “do, make” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/45), as ᴹ√KAR “make, build, construct” in The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/KAR), and in numerous other places in various notes, including a last known appearance in verbal notes from 1969 as √KAR “do” (PE22/155). Though its exact set of derivatives varied over time, the root itself was extremely stable in Tolkien’s mind.

Derivatives

• S. caras “city, fort or dwelling surrounded by bulwarks, circular earthwall with dike, city, [N.] city (built above ground); [S.] (orig.) fort or dwelling surrounded by bulwarks, circular earthwall with dike” ✧ PE17/084
• ✶kar- “do, make” ✧ PE18/095
  • Q. car- “to do, make, to do, make, [ᴹQ.] build” ✧ PE17/129; PE22/167
  • S. car- “to do, make” ✧ WJ/415
  • T. car- “to do”
• ᴺQ. caira “eager [to do]”
• ᴺQ. car “act, an action”
• Q. caraitë “active, busy, active, busy; [ᴹQ.] able to make, handy, crafty, craftsmanlike, skilled” ✧ PE22/155
• Q. carasse “built fort or dwelling surrounded by bulwarks” ✧ PE17/084
• Q. carasta- “to build, to build, construct” ✧ PE17/084
• Q. cárima “feasible, possible (to do), able to be done, feasible, possible (to do), able to be done, [ᴹQ.] able to be made” ✧ PE22/155
• Q. carma “tool, implement, means, weapon” ✧ PE17/114
• ᴺS. carf “tool, implement, weapon”
• ᴺS. caur “action, doing, making; verb”
• ᴺS. ceiria- “to cause, bring about”
• ᴺS. cranna- “to accomplish, finish, complete, [G.] achieve”

Element in

• ᴺQ. carmen “recipe”

Variations

• CAR ✧ PE17/084; PE17/150

kas

root. head

The root for “head” was established very early in Tolkien’s Elvish languages, appearing in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as ᴱ√KASA “head” (QL/45), though in this period its Qenya derivative was ᴱQ. kar (kas-) because [[eq|final [s] became [r]]] in Early Quenya (PE12/26). It had derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. cas “head, skull” (GL/25), a word that reappeared in Early Noldorin word lists of the 1920s as ᴱN. cas “skull” (PE13/140).

The root ᴹ√KAS “head” reappeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s, still with the form ᴹQ. kár (kas-) “head” (Ety/KAS), but Tolkien eventually abandoned the Early Qenya phonology and the Quenya form became Q. kas after some vacillation (PE19/103). The root √KAS “head” continued to appear frequently in Tolkien’s later writing (PE17/114; PE21/70; VT42/12).

Derivatives

• ✶kas “head”
  • Q. cas “head, head, [ᴱQ.] top, summit” ✧ PE17/188
• ✶kasd(a) “to the head”
  • Q. cas(ta) “to(wards) the top, upwards” ✧ PE21/76; PE21/76
• ✶kasma “?helm” ✧ PE17/114
  • Q. carma “helm” ✧ PE17/114; PE17/114; PE17/114
• S. cast “cape, headland”

Element in

• ✶kasraya “a tressure” ✧ VT42/12

Variations

• kas ✧ PE21/70
• cas ✧ VT42/12

kas

noun. head

Derivations

• √KAS “head”

Derivatives

• Q. cas “head, head, [ᴱQ.] top, summit” ✧ PE17/188

Element in

• Q. castol(o) “helmet” ✧ PE17/188
• S. castol “helmet” ✧ PE17/188

Variations

• kāza ✧ PE17/188

cardh

noun. deed, feat

carth

noun. deed, feat

carth

noun. deed

Changes

• carth → carð “deed” ✧ Ety/KAR

Cognates

• ᴹQ. kar “deed” ✧ Ety/KAR

Derivations

• ᴹ√KAR “make, build, construct” ✧ Ety/KAR

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ√KAR > carth	[karta] > [kartʰa] > [karθa] > [karθ]	✧ Ety/KAR

Variations

• carð ✧ Ety/KAR (carð)

adab

noun. building, house

adab

noun. building, house

A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “building, house” derived from primitive ᴹ✶atakwē under the root ᴹ√TAK “fix, make fast” (Ety/TAK). Here the ancient kw became p and then the voiceless t, p became voiced d, b as they generally did after vowels. It had a (Noldorin) plural form edeb, also appearing in a (rejected) name N. Edeb na Nestad “Houses of Healing” from Lord of the Rings drafts of the 1940s (WR/380). Its Sindarin plural would be ✱edaib.

Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s Tolkien had G. bad “building, outhouse, shed” related to G. bada- “build” (GL/21). In Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s Tolkien had ᴱN. adob “(a) building” from primitive ᴱ✶atāqa (PE13/136, 158, 165); in this period it also served as the infinitive of the verb N. adag- “to build, erect” (PE13/132, 158).

Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin I would use this word primarily in the sense of “a building”; for an ordinary “house” where people live, I would use S. bâr.

Cognates

• ᴹQ. ataqe “construction, building” ✧ Ety/TAK

Derivations

• ᴹ✶atakwē “construction, building” ✧ Ety/TAK
  • ᴹ√TAK “fix, make fast, make” ✧ Ety/TAK

Element in

• N. Edeb na Nestad “Houses of Healing” ✧ WR/380 (Edeb na Nestad)

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ✶atakwē > adab	[atakwē] > [atapē] > [atape] > [atap] > [atab] > [adab]	✧ Ety/TAK
ᴹ✶atakwē > edeb	[atakwī] > [atapī] > [atapi] > [etepi] > [eteip] > [eteib] > [edeib] > [edeb]	✧ Ety/TAK

dôl

noun. head

dôl

noun. hill or mountain