luin

jhJ5 adjective. blue

Examples: Ered luin, Helluin, Luinil, Mindolluin

luin

adjective. blue

luin

adjective. blue

luin

blue

adj. blue. . This gloss was rejected.

duin

noun. (large) river, (large) river; [N.] water

A Sindarin word for river, more specifically a large one (LotR/1138; PM/54; RC/765; VT48/24), derived from primitive ✶duinē and the root √DUY “flow (strongly), flood, inundate” (RC/766; VT48/23-24).

Conceptual Development: The first precursor to this word seems to be G. duif “stream” from the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, derived from primitive ᴱ✶duiwe and related to G. duil “flight” (GL/31). The Etymologies of the 1930s had N. duin under the root ᴹ√DUI̯, but there it was a loan word from Ilk. duin “water, river”. After Tolkien abandoned Ilkorin, it became a native Sindarin word.

lung

adjective. heavy, heavy; [G.] grave, serious

Sindarin adjective meaning “heavy” attested only in the name Mablung “Heavy Hand” (S/185). Given this name’s Quenya cognate Q. Lungumá (VT47/19), S. lung probably developed from primitive ✱✶lungŭ, where the [[s|[u] was prevented from become [o] by the presence of the nasal [ŋ]]].

The Gnomish glosses for this word from the 1910s included the more metaphorical senses of “grave, serious” (GL/55). It’s possible the Sindarin word could be used in this way as well.

Conceptual Development: In the Gnomish Lexicon from the 1910s, the word for “heavy” was also G. lung (GL/55), an element in the name G. Mablung as well (LT2A/Mablung). Its primitive form was not given, but judging by the related word G. luntha- “to balance, weigh”, it might have been ✱ᴱ√LUŊU. The form ᴱN. lung “heavy” reappeared in the Early Noldorin Grammar from the 1920s (PE13/122), but became ᴱN. lhung in the (Early) Noldorin Dictionary (PE13/163), after Tolkien decided that [[en|initial [r-], [l-] were unvoiced]].

In The Etymologies from the 1930s, the Noldorin form of this word was N. lhong derived from primitive ᴹ✶lungā (Ety/LUG¹), where [[n|the [u] became [o] due to a-affection]]. At this point in time, Mablung was Doriathrin/Ilkorin rather than a Noldorin name (Ety/MAP), so there was no conflict.

After Tolkien abandoned the Ilkorin language, Mablung would have become a Sindarin name, and Tolkien needed a new etymology for it. Judging by its later Quenya cognate Lungumá (VT47/19), it seems that Tolkien revised the primitive form of this word from ✶lungā to ✶lungŭ, as described above, possibly a restoration of its etymology from the 1920s. This meant there was no a-affection in the Sindarin development, making S. lung the Sindarin form of the word.

Neo-Sindarin: I personally prefer S. lung for the Sindarin word for “heavy”, but some Neo-Sindarin authors use the reformed word ᴺS. ^long, based on the Noldorin word lhong in The Etymologies, switching to a voiced [l] because the unvoicing of initial [l], [r] does not happen in Sindarin phonology. This is not entirely consistent with my prefered Neo-Quenya word for “heavy”: lunga; I assume there was some divergent evolution in Sindarin and Quenya for this word.

luin

blue

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

nelluin

noun. bluebell

A neologism post by Vyacheslav Stepanov in 2022-06-16 on the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS), a combination of [N.] nell “bell” and luin.

elu

adjective. (pale) blue

long

adjective. heavy

lô

blue

adj. blue. . This gloss was rejected.

nimp

adjective. pale

adj. pale, pallid. nimp << nim (PE17:168). >> niphred

bannen

gone

#bannen (pl. bennin). Isolated from govannen ”met”, based on the assumption that this past participle includes a form of the verb #bad- ”go”.

bannen

adjective. gone

bannen

gone

(pl. bennin). Isolated from govannen ”met”, based on the assumption that this past participle includes a form of the verb #bad- ”go”.

caul

heavy burden

(i gaul, o chaul) (affliction), pl. coel (i choel), coll. pl. colath; 

dram

heavy stroke

(i dhram) (blow), pl. draim (in draim)

elu

pale blue

(analogical pl. ely). Archaic elw (pl. ilw?).

gael

pale

(glittering), lenited ’ael; no distinct pl. form.

gwind

pale blue

(lenited ’wind; no distinct pl. form).

ia

ago

ia, io

ia

ago

io

long

heavy

long (pl. lyng);

long

adjective. heavy

long

heavy

(pl. lyng);

maidh

pale

1) maidh (lenited vaidh; no distinct pl. form) (fallow, fawn), 2) nimp (nim-) (white); no distinct pl. form, 3) thind (grey); no distinct pl. form; 4) gael (glittering), lenited ael; no distinct pl. form. 5) *malu (lenited valu; analogical pl. mely; lenited valu) (fallow). Cited in archaic form malw (LR:386 s.v. SMAL).

maidh

pale

(lenited vaidh; no distinct pl. form) (fallow, fawn)

malu

pale

(lenited valu; analogical pl. mely; lenited valu) (fallow). Cited in archaic form malw (LR:386 s.v. SMAL).

mith

pale grey

(lenited vith; no distinct pl. form). David Salo would read mîth with a long vowel. Note: a homophone means ”white fog, wet mist”.

nimp

pale

(nim-) (white); no distinct pl. form

or

over

(adjectival prefix) or- (above, high)

or

over

(above, high)

thar

over

(adverbial prefix) thar- (across, athwart, beyond)

thar

over

(across, athwart, beyond)

thind

pale

(grey); no distinct pl. form

luinil

proper name. *Blue Star

The name of a blue star (S/48, SI/Luinil), possibly Neptune (MR/435). This name is perhaps a compound of luinë (luini-) “blue” and †él “star”.

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).

luina

pale

[luina] adj. "pale" (VT45:30)

luinincë

bluish

*luinincë (luininci*-) ("k")adj. "bluish". The form is given as "luininki" with the last vowel marked as short; this would be the etymological form underlying Quenya luinincë** (VT48:18)

luinë

adjective. blue

luinincë

adjective. bluish

Illuin

blue

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

Mindolluin

blue tower

Mindolluin noun *"Blue Tower" (mindon + luin), name of a mountain. (Christopher Tolkien translates the name as "Towering Blue-head" in the Silmarillion Index, but this seems to be based on the questionable assumption that it includes the Sindarin element dol "head, hill". Unless this translation is given in his father's papers, the name is better explained as a Quenya compound.)

luinion

noun. lapis lazuli, (lit.) blue-rock

A neologism for “lapis lazuli” coming for a conversation between Orondil and Paul Strack on 2022-04-06 in the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS), a combination of luinë (luini-) “blue” and ondo “stone”. Although this name is somewhat prosaic, it matches the etymology of Tolkien’s own word for “lapis lazuli” from the 1910s: ᴱQ. nindon which also meant “blue stone” (QL/66).

luinyellë

noun. bluebell

A neologism for “bluebell” coined by Tamas Ferencz, a combination of luinë “blue” and Q. nyellë “bell”. See also the attested form [ᴹQ.] nil for “blue-bell” (PE21/26).

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.

-(n)duinë

suffix. (large) river

An element in several river names such as Q. Anduinë and Q. Nunduinë, the equivalent of S. duin. It did not survive as an independent word in Quenya:

> Common Eldarin bases DUY and LUY, for instance, were distinct. DUY meant “to flood, drench, inundate”, but LUY was the base of words for “blue”. Both would become LUY in Quenya. Which probably accounts for the disappearance from Quenya of C.E. ✱duinē “large river (liable to flood surrounding land)” seen in [S.] Anduin “long river” and Baranduin “brown river”: it became identical with [Q.] luine adj. “blue” (VT48/23).

In fact, its use in Quenya river names may have been a later loan from Sindarin.

Conceptual Development: In one place Tolkien did consider the suffix’s survival as an archaic independent Quenya noun †nuine, but Tolkien rejected the note where it appeared, replacing it with the above (VT48/30 note #2).

-duinë

suffix. (large) river

auta

particle. ago

auta

adverb. ago

enge

adverb. ago

ago, once, in the past

isca

pale

isca ("k") adj."pale" (LT1:256)

lunga

heavy

lunga adj. "heavy" (LUG1). Curiously, the variant lungu- appears in certain compounds; see Lungumá, lungumaitë.

lungo

adjective. heavy

Quenya adjective meaning “heavy” attested only as lungu- in the compounds Lungumá “Heavyhand” and lungumaitë “heavy-handed” (VT47/19, PE17/162). Given its stem form, it probably developed from primitive ✱✶lungŭ, which would be ✱lungo in Quenya since [[p|short final [i], [u] became [e], [o]]] in Primitive Elvish. This is consistent with its Sindarin cognate S. lung.

In one place, an earlier form of this word ᴹQ. lunga was glossed “fraught” in the phrase “fraught with sorrow” (PE22/124), as in “heavy with sorrow”. This indicates this word could be used in the metaphorical sense of “heavy” as well as its physical sense.

Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon from the 1910s, the word for “heavy” was ᴱQ. talka “heavy” from the root ᴱ√TALA “support” (QL/88). In the (Early) Noldorin Dictionary from the 1920s, Tolkien introduced the form ᴱQ. lungo “heavy” (PE13/163), but towards the end of that decade he used ᴱQ. lunga in notes associated with the Oilima Markirya poem (PE16/75).

ᴹQ. lunga reappeared in The Etymologies from the 1930s, this time as a derivative of ᴹ✶lungā, consistent with the a-affection in its Noldorin cognate lhong (Ety/LUG¹). At this point in time, Mablung was Doriathrin/Ilkorin rather than a Noldorin name (Ety/MAP), so there was no conflict with that name.

After Tolkien abandoned the Ilkorin language, Mablung would have become a Sindarin name, and Tolkien needed a new etymology for it. Judging by its later Quenya cognate Lungumá (VT47/19), it seems that Tolkien revised the primitive form of this word from ✶lungā to ✶lungŭ, as described above, possibly a restoration of its etymology from the 1920s. This meant there was no a-affection in the Sindarin development, making S. lung the Sindarin form of the word.

Neo-Quenya: Some Neo-Quenya writers (including myself at various points) prefer the earlier adjective for “heavy”: ᴹQ. lunga (Ety/LUG¹), since (a) it is directly attested and (b) has an obvious plural form lungë. Unfortunately, this earlier adjective is not compatible with S. lung. As such, I currently prefer Q. lungo, and would assume it has a plural form ✱lungwi similar to nouns like ᴹQ. ango (angu-), pl. angwi (Ety/ANGWA).

marya

pale, fallow, fawn

marya adj. "pale, fallow, fawn" (MAD)

ninwa

blue

ninwa adj. "blue" (LT1:262)

néca

pale, vague, faint, dim to see

néca ("k") adj "pale, vague, faint, dim to see", pl. nécë ("k") in Markirya

nívë

pale

nívë adj."pale" (MC:213; this is "Qenya" Tolkien's later Quenya has néca)

olla

over

olla prep "over" (= beyond, of things passed over, as in "I went over a river" or "they went over the hill") (PE17:65)

or

over

or prep. "over" (CO); in early "Qenya", this preposition was also defined as "on, upon" (LT1:256, MC:216). Prefixed or- is translated "up" in ortil, q.v.

vanwa

gone, lost, no longer to be had, vanished, departed, dead, past, past and over, gone on the road, over

vanwa adj. "gone, lost, no longer to be had, vanished, departed, dead, past, past and over, gone on the road, over" (WJ:366, Nam, RGEO:67, WAN, LT1:264; older wanwa, PE17:143). The word was "not applied to _dead persons _except those who would not return, either because of a special doom (as [in the case of] Men) or because of a special will of their own (as Felagund or Míriel) or a special ban of Mandos (as Feanor)" (PE17:143). Also see avanwa.

luindirien

place name. Blue Towers

Another name for the Blue Mountains (Eredluin) from Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s translated “Blue Towers” (LR/267). It also appeared in The Etymologies as Lhúndirien, where its initial element was lhûn “blue” (Ety/LUG²). The meaning of its second element must therefore by “towers”, perhaps a Noldorized plural form of ᴹQ. tirion “tower”.

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

elw

adjective. (pale) blue

gael

adjective. pale, glimmering

ia

adverb. ago

io

adverb. ago

io

adverb. ago

lhong

adjective. heavy

lhong

adjective. heavy

maidh

adjective. pale, fallow, fawn

meidh

adjective. pale, fallow, fawn

nim-

adjective. pale, white

nimp

adjective. pale, white

nimp

adjective. pale

luini

adjective. blue

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).

duinē

noun. (large) river

lugni

adjective. blue

orlā

preposition. over

lungu Reconstructed

adjective. heavy

luinë

adjective. blue

duinë

noun. (large) river

ulban

adjective. blue

lygn

adjective. pale

Primitive form given as lugni "blue", sc. the stem LUG1 (LR:370, not defined) with an ending -ni not otherwise attested, though -i is an ending found on many primitive colour-adjectives. The ending _-i _causes umlaut u > y; compare yrc as the plural of urc "Orc". That a short original final -i is capable of causing such an umlaut at the Common Eldarin stage is somewhat surprising, since Primitive Quendian lugni should have become *lugne at this stage, and final e would hardly cause umlaut. Perhaps we are to understand that the change of final i to Common Eldarin e happened relatively late, after the Eldar had crossed the Hihtaeglir and parted with the Nandor?