luinë

blue

luinë adj. "blue", pl. luini (PE17:66, VT48:23, 24, 28, Nam, RGEO:66). Common Eldarin luini- would also be the stem-form in Quenya (VT48:24). Compare luinincë. Apparently -luin in Illuin, the name of one of the Lamps of the Valar (q.v.), Helluin, name of the star Sirius, and Luinil, name of another blue-shining star (or planet). (SA; Luinil is tentatively identified with Neptune, MR:435). Cf. also menelluin "sky-blue", used as noun = "cornflower" (J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator p. 193).

luinë

adjective. blue

Cognates

• S. luin “blue” ✧ SA/luin; VT48/23; VT48/28
• T. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/28

Derivations

• √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/23
• ✶luini “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Element in

• Q. Andúnë pella Vardo tellumar nu luini “beyond the West, beneath the blue vaults of Varda” ✧ LotR/0377; RGEO/58
• Q. Andúnë pella Vardo nu luini tellumar “West beyond [the borders of] Varda’s under blue domes” ✧ RGEO/58
• Q. Helluin “?Ice or Sky Blue” ✧ SA/luin
• ᴺQ. luicarnë “purple”
• Q. Luinil “*Blue Star” ✧ SA/luin
• Q. luinincë “bluish”
• ᴺQ. luinion “lapis lazuli, (lit.) blue-rock”
• ᴺQ. luinyellë “bluebell”
• Q. menelluin “cornflower (colour), *(lit.) sky-blue”
• Q. sanomë tarnë Olórin, Aracorno, Eomer, Imrahil, mi mísë, mi telepta yo morna, mi laiqua yo ninquë, mi luinë, ta Gimli mi lossëa “There stood Gandalf, Aragorn, Eomer and Imrahil in grey, in silver and black, in green and white, and in blue, and also Gimli in white” ✧ PE17/071

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
√LUY > luine	[luini] > [luine]	✧ VT48/23
✶luini > luine	[luini] > [luine]	✧ VT48/24

Variations

• luine ✧ PE17/066; VT48/23; VT48/24; VT48/28
• luini ✧ PE17/071
• luin ✧ SA/luin

lúnë

blue

lúnë (stem *lúni-, given the primitive form ¤lugni) adj. "blue" (LUG2, LT1:262; later sources rather give luinë, with pl. form luini_ in Namárië)_. According to VT45:29, lúnë in the Etymologies was changed by Tolkien from lúna.

Illuin

blue

Illuin place-name, name of one of the Lamps of the Valar; apparently incorporating the element luin "blue" (Silm): hence *"all-blue"?

ninwa

blue

ninwa adj. "blue" (LT1:262)

luin

adjective. blue

luin

blue

adj. blue. . This gloss was rejected.

luin

jhJ5 adjective. blue

Examples: Ered luin, Helluin, Luinil, Mindolluin

luin

adjective. blue

Cognates

• Q. luinë “blue” ✧ SA/luin; VT48/23; VT48/28

Derivations

• √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/23
• ✶luini “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Element in

• S. Aeluin “*Blue Lake” ✧ S/162
• S. caralluin “*red-blue”
• S. Draugluin “*Blue (Were)wolf”
• S. Ered Luin “Blue Mountains” ✧ SA/luin; VT48/23; VT48/24; VT48/28
• S. Hirluin
• S. Ithryn Luin “Blue Wizards” ✧ UT/390
• S. Mindolluin “Towering Blue-head” ✧ SA/luin
• ᴺS. nelluin “bluebell”
• S. Sîr Luin ✧ VT48/23; VT48/28 (Sîr Luin)

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
√LUY > Luin	[luini] > [luine] > [luin]	✧ VT48/23
✶luini > luin	[luini] > [luine] > [luin]	✧ VT48/24

Variations

• Luin ✧ Let/448; VT48/23

elu

adjective. (pale) blue

lô

blue

adj. blue. . This gloss was rejected.

luin

blue

luin (no distinct pl. form, as demonstrated by the name Ered Luin ”Blue Mountains”) (VT48:24)

luinë

adjective. blue

Cognates

• Q. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/28

Derivations

• ✶luini “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Variations

• luine ✧ VT48/24; VT48/28

ulban

adjective. blue

lugni

adjective. blue

luini

adjective. blue

Derivations

• √LUY “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Derivatives

• Q. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/24
• S. luin “blue” ✧ VT48/24
• T. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/24

Element in

• S. Ered Luin “Blue Mountains” ✧ PE17/136; VT48/27

Variations

• LUINI ✧ PE17/136 (LUINI); PE17/161
• luini- ✧ PE17/136 (luini-); VT48/27 (luini-)

luy

root. blue

The Elvish words for “blue” remained very similar throughout Tolkien’s life, but underwent a number of minor conceptual shifts. The word ᴱQ. lūne “blue, deep blue” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s in a collection of words along with ᴱQ. lūle “blue stone, sapphire”, but no root was given (QL/55). The word for “blue” in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon was G. luim (GL/55). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, the root for “blue” was ᴹ√LUG with derivatives ᴹQ. lúne and N. lhûn (Ety/LUG²).

Meanwhile, the root ᴹ√LUY appeared in The Etymologies with derivatives ᴹQ. luina and Dor. luin “pale” (EtyAC/LUY), probably connected to ᴱN. Draugluin “Werewolf Pale” from the Lays of Beleriand of the 1920s (LB/205). But in The Etymologies the root ᴹ√LUY was rejected, and Dor. luin “pale” was reassigned to ᴹ√LUG² and then revised in form to Dor. lūn (Ety/LUG²; EtyAC/LUG²).

In addition, there was already evidence of a conceptual shift in the Noldorin words for blue in the 1930s, with the name N. Eredluin “Blue Mountains” being given as an alternative to N. Lhúnorodrim and N. Lhúndirien “Blue Towers” (Ety/LUG²), the latter appearing as N. Luindirien in contemporaneous Silmarillion narratives (LR/267). By the 1950s and 60s, the Sindarin and Quenya words for “blue” had firmly become S. luin (Let/448; S/54; UT/390) and Q. luinë (LotR/377; PE17/66, 71). The root √LUY “blue” appeared in notes from the late 1960s serving as the new basis for these “blue” words (VT48/23-24, 26).

All this made a mess for the river name S. Lhûn (LotR/1134) from The Lord of the Rings which was a remnant of Tolkien’s earlier ideas, and he struggled to find a new basis for that name as discussed by Patrick Wynne in his article on The Problem of Lhûn (VT48/26-29).

Derivatives

• ✶luini “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • Q. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • S. luin “blue” ✧ VT48/24
  • T. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/24
• ᴺQ. luilë “sapphire, blue stone”
• Q. luinë “blue” ✧ VT48/23
• ᴺS. lui “blueness; livor, livid mark, *bruise”
• S. luin “blue” ✧ VT48/23

lhûn

adjective. (unknown meaning)

This word, which also appears on the map of Middle-earth in LotR, is glossed as "blue" in The Etymologies, but Tolkien later rejected this meaning (as luin was already used in that sense). He then proposed several explanations for it, including the possible adaptation of a Dwarvish name into Sindarin, but he apparently never reached a definitive solution.

lhûn

adjective. blue

Cognates

• ᴹQ. lúne “blue, blue, [ᴱQ.] deep blue” ✧ Ety/LUG²

Derivations

• ᴹ✶lugni “blue” ✧ Ety/LUG²
  • ᴹ√LUG “*blue” ✧ Ety/LUG²

Element in

• N. Eredluin “Blue Mountains” ✧ Ety/LUG²
• N. Lhûn “Blue River”
• N. Lhúnorodrim “Blue Mountains” ✧ Ety/LUG²
• N. Luindirien “Blue Towers” ✧ Ety/LUG²
• N. Tor-dilluin

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ✶lugni > lhûn	[lugni] > [lugne] > [luŋne] > [lūne] > [lūn] > [l̥ūn]	✧ Ety/LUG²
ᴹ✶lugni > luin	[lugnī] > [lugni] > [luŋni] > [lūni] > [luin] > [l̥uin]	✧ Ety/LUG²

elw

adjective. (pale) blue