kaw

root. shelter

This root was primarily used as the basis for the word Q. coa “house”, which first appeared (without the root) in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60 (WJ/369). The root √KAW “shelter” appeared in various etymological notes from the mid-to-late 1960s (PE17/107-108, 164; VT47/35). The root √KAWA also appeared in the 2nd version of the Tengwesta Qenderinwa written around 1950, but there it was unglossed and had no glossed derivatives, so whether it meant “shelter” in the early 1950s is unclear.

The only published root with form similar to √KAWA prior to 1950 is ᴱ√KAẆA “stoop” from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/45), also appearing as kava- or cava- in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon (GL/25, 27). The Ẇ is Tolkien’s usual representation of derivatives of ancient labialized velar spirants [ɣʷ] or [xʷ] (PE12/15-16). The derivatives of this root included words like ᴱQ. kauko/G. caug “humpback” and ᴱQ. kawa-/G. cam(m)a- “bow”, so it seems to have no connection to later √KAW other than its similarity in form.

Derivatives

• ✶kawa “shelter, house” ✧ PE17/108; VT47/35
  • Q. cöa “house; outhouse, shed, hut, booth; building used for a dwelling or other purposes; †body” ✧ PE17/108; VT47/35
• ✶kā “home, house” ✧ VT47/35
• Q. cöa “house; outhouse, shed, hut, booth; building used for a dwelling or other purposes; †body” ✧ PE17/107; PE17/164

Element in

• Q. cauma “protection, shelter, shield” ✧ PE17/108

Variations

• KAWA ✧ PE18/082
• kāw(ɜ) ✧ VT47/35