lótë noun "flower", mostly applied to larger single flowers (LOT(H), LT1:259, VT42:18). (The shorter form -lot occurs in compounds, e.g. fúmellot, q.v.) In the names Ninquelóte *"White-flower" (= Nimloth), Vingilótë "Foam-flower", the name of Eärendil's ship (SA:loth), also in Lótessë fifth month of the year, "May" (Appendix D). See also olótë, lotsë.
Quenya
lóte
noun. flower
lótë
noun. flower, single blossom, flower, single blossom; [ᴱQ.] bloom
Cognates
- S. loth “flower, single blossom; inflorescence, head of small flowers” ✧ PE17/026; PE17/161; SA/loth
Derivations
- √LOT(H) “flower” ✧ PE17/026; PE17/160; VT42/18
Element in
- Q. Eälótë “*Sea Flower”
- Q. Eldalótë “Elven-flower” ✧ PM/346
- Q. lilótëa “having many flowers” ✧ VT42/18
- ᴺQ. lórelot “poppy, *(lit.) flower of sleep”
- ᴺQ. lotarwa “[flower] garden”
- ᴺQ. lótëa “full of blossom, *blooming, flowering”
- ᴺQ. lótelas “petal, (lit.) flower-leaf”
- ᴺQ. lotella “floret”
- Q. Lótessë “May, *(lit.) Flower-ness”
- Q. Ninquelótë “White Blossom” ✧ SA/loth
- Q. Númellótë “Flower of the West”
- Q. olótë “bloom, the flowers collectively of a single plant” ✧ VT42/18
- Q. Vingilótë “Foam-flower” ✧ SA/loth
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √LOT > lóte [lōte] ✧ PE17/026 √LOT > lóte [lōte] ✧ PE17/160 √LOT > lóte [lōte] ✧ VT42/18 Variations
- lóte ✧ PE17/026; PE17/160; VT42/18
lótë
flower
alma
noun. flower
A word for “flower” derived from primitive ✶galmā in notes on flowers in the same bundle containing Definitive Linguistic Notes (DLN) from 1959 (PE17/153). Initially Tolkien said alma meant both “a blessed thing and a flower”, then said that Q. almë was “a blessed thing” and alba was “flower” (< √GAL-AB), before saying that alma was “flower”. Tolkien implied that alma was a usual or general word for “flower” in Quenya. These same notes also said the word alda < ✶galadā was used mainly of flowering trees. It seems in this instance Tolkien connected the root √GAL (normally just “grow, flourish”) specifically to flowers, giving it the gloss “bloom” along with other glosses like “grow, flourish, be vigorous”.
Neo-Quenya: Elsewhere alda was the general word for a “tree” and √GAL had no special connection to flowers. I think alma as a “flower” word was a transient idea. I would use lótë “flower” instead for purposes of Neo-Quenya, since it is much better established.
Changes
alma→ almë “a blessed thing and a flower” ✧ PE17/153alba→ alma “flower” ✧ PE17/153Cognates
- S.
alf“flower” ✧ PE17/153Derivations
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ✶galmā > alma [galmā] > [ɣalmā] > [almā] > [alma] ✧ PE17/153 √GAL-AB > alba [galba] > [ɣalba] > [ɣalβa] > [alβa] > [alba] ✧ PE17/153 Variations
- alba ✧ PE17/153 (
alba)
alma
flower
alma (2) "flower" (PE17:153), said to be the "usual Quenya word" or "general Quenya word" (i.e. for flower), but its coexistence with #1 is problematic. Compare lós, lótë, lotsë, indil.
alba
noun. flower
insil
noun. flower
TQ. flower, lily
lós
flower
lós (þ?) noun "flower" (PE17:26). If this is to be the cognate of Sindarin loth, as the source suggests, the older Quenya form would be *lóþ.
The best known Quenya word for “flower”, which Tolkien used for most of his life. Most notably it was an element in Vingilótë “Foam-flower”, the name of Eärendil’s ship (S/246).
Conceptual Development: The word dates all the way back to the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s where ᴱQ. lōte was glossed “a flower, bloom (usually of large single flowers)” under the early root ᴱ√LO’O (QL/55). It appeared regularly in documents in the 1910s, 20s and 30s with glosses like “flower” and “blossom” (PME/56; MC/220; PE16/77; PE21/7). In The Etymologies of the 1930s it was ᴹQ. lóte “(large single) flower” under the root ᴹ√LOT(H) “flower” (Ety/LOT(H)).
The word continued to appear in Tolkien’s writings of the 1950s and 60s with glosses like “flower” or “a single blossom” and derived from √LOT (PE17/26, 160; VT42/18). In one place Tolkien said it meant “a flowering plant, especially one that produces (large) separate flowers of distinct shape; also used of any single bloom of such a plant” (PE17/160). However, generally it was used of individual (large) flowers. Smaller flowers could use other words like lotsë (PE17/\160; VT42/18), but I think lótë was the most general term for “flower”.