laikā

adjective. keen, sharp, acute

laik

root. keen, sharp, acute

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “keen, sharp, acute” with derivatives like ᴹQ. laika/N. lhaeg of the same meaning; apparently the root was the result of a-fortification of ᴹ√LIK (Ety/LAIK; EtyAC/LAIK). It was thus distinct from ᴹ√LÁYAK “✱green, fresh” (Ety/LÁYAK). The root ᴹ√LAIK was clearly a later iteration of unglossed ᴱ√LAIKA from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. laika “keen, sharp” (QL/50), but in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon Tolkien gave the primitive form as ᴱ✶leika > both G. (g)leg “keen, sharp, piercing” and ᴱQ. laika (GL/53). Since [[eq|[ei] became [ai]]] in Early Qenya, ᴱ✶leika seems more represenative of the 1910s form of this root.