lut

root. float, float, [ᴹ√] swim

This root was connected to floating and boats for all of Tolkien’s life. It first appeared as unglossed ᴱ√LUTU in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. lunte “ship” and ᴱQ. lutu- or lutta- “flow, float” (QL/57). It also had derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. laud “flood; high tide; tide, motion of the sea”, G. lud- “flow, stream, float”, and G. lunta “a ship” (GL/53, 55). It appeared as ᴹ√LUT “float, swim” in The Etymologies of the 1930s with derivatives ᴹQ. lunte/N. lhunt “boat” and N. lhoda- “to float” (Ety/LUT). The root √LUT “float” was mentioned in passing within notes from the late 1960s having to do with The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor (VT42/18).

sir

root. flow

The root √SIR and similar roots meant “flow” for most of Tolkien’s life. The earliest form of this root was ᴱ√SIŘI [SIÐI] “flow” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with variant sini and derived forms like ᴱQ. sindi “river” and ᴱQ. síre “stream” (QL/84). The latter word became “river” in Tolkien’s later writings, and words appearing in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon like G. sîr “river” and G. siriol “flowing” (GL/67-68) rather than ✱✱sidh- indicate Tolkien very early revised the root to ✱ᴱ√SIRI. Indeed, the root was ᴹ√SIR “flow” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, and the root appeared with this form and essential meaning several times in Tolkien’s later writings (PE22/127, 135).

sirya-

verb. to flow, to flow [smoothly]