lit

root. *(fine) grit

An unglossed root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with derivatives ᴹQ. litse/N. lith “sand” (Ety/LIT). Elsewhere N. lith was translated “ash” (TI/208), so perhaps the meaning of the root was something like “✱(fine) grit”. Tolkien’s continued use of S. lith “ash” indicates its ongoing validity (RC/765; SA/lith).

Derivatives

• ᴹ✶litse “sand” ✧ Ety/LIT
  • ᴹQ. litse “sand” ✧ Ety/LIT
  • On. litthe “sand” ✧ Ety/LIT
  • N. lith “sand” ✧ Ety/LIT
• ᴺQ. littë “ash”
• S. lith “ash, ash; [N.] sand”

Element in

• N. Fauglith “Thirsty Sand” ✧ Ety/PHAU

(s)lit

root. swiftly[?] speed[?]

The forms √SLIT and √LIT appear in a rejected page of roots from the Quenya Verbal System of the 1940s with some unclear glosses, probably “swiftly, speed”; they were the basis for the past-tense form lhinte “sped” of otherwise unattested verb ᴹQ. lhit- (PE22/127). This root might be connected to later Q. linta “swift” from the Namárië poem (LotR/377; PE17/63), though elsewhere Tolkien indicated that Q. linta (< ✱lim-tā?) was the equivalent of S. lim “quick, swift” (PE17/147).

Derivatives

• ᴹQ. lhit- “to speed” ✧ PE22/127
• Q. linta “swift”

Variations

• SLIT ✧ PE22/127 (SLIT)
• LIT ✧ PE22/127 (LIT)