Tolkien experimented with various words for “debt, trespass” in drafts of the Átaremma prayer from the 1950s. In the earliest draft Tolkien had lucassë (VT43/8), revised to lucië in the second draft (VT43/9-10), and luhta in the third (VT43/11), all based on luc-. In the third version luhta was deleted and replaced by rohta, with luhta reappearing in the fourth version only to be revised again to rohta (VT43/11-12). In the final two versions Tolkien used úcarë (VT43/12), but this may have a different sense such as “misdeed” or “sin”: compare úcarindo “✱sinner” from the Aia María prayer (VT43/11-12).
The derivations of the luc-forms are unclear, as none of the attested meanings of the root √LUK seem to fit. Likewise the attested meaning of ᴹ√ROK has to do with horses, which also doesn’t fit.
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would ignore the luc-forms, but would retain rohta for the sense “debt”. For example, Helge Fauskanger used rohta “debt” in his NQNT (NQNT).
The seventh line of Átaremma, Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Lord’s Prayer. The first word is ar “and”, followed by a combination of the imperative particle á and the (dative) second person plural pronoun men “[for] us”. Next follows apsene, the aorist form of the verb apsen- “forgive”. The final word úcaremmar “our trespasses” is the first person plural exclusive possessive form of úcarë, with the usual plural suffix -r indicating the possessed noun was also plural (“trespasses” as opposed to “trespass”).
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> ar á-me-n apsenë úcare-mma-r = “✱and (imperative)-us-for forgive trespass-our-(plural)”
Conceptual Development: Earlier versions of the prayer used a different verb avatyar- for “forgive”, in what was probably a suffixed imperative form avatyara (I-IIa) or ávatyara (IIb-IV). In version I-IV, this was followed by the ablative form mello “[from] us” of the pronoun me.
Earlier versions of the prayer used a variety of words for “trespass”: lucassë (I), lucië (IIa-IIb), luhta (III-IV deleted) and rohta (III-IV). Most instances used the same possessive suffix -mma “our” as the final verion of the prayer, but version III used an independent pronoun menya, in its plural form menye to agree with the plural noun “trespasses”.
| I |IIa|IIb|III|IV|V|VI| |ar| |avatyara|ávatyara|ámen| |mello|apsene| |lucassemmar|i luciemmar|menye {luhtar >>} rohtar|{luhtammar >>} rohtammar|úcaremmar|