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).

Derivatives

• Q. luntë “boat, boat, [ᴱQ.] ship”
• ᴺQ. lut- “to float, sail, *swim, flow”

Element in

• ᴺQ. (lu)lútië “cruise, (lit.) floating/sailing about”
• ᴺQ. lunwa “fin, (lit.) swim-thing”
• ᴺQ. luttalan “raft, (lit.) floating platform”
• ᴺS. lothalan “raft, (lit.) floating platform”