Primitive elvish
mal
root. gold, yellow, gold
Derivatives
Element in
- ✶Malaphinde “Goldlocks”
- √MALAT “gold”
- Q. culumalda “laburnum, *(lit.) orange-tree” ✧ SA/mal
- ᴺQ. malicon “amber”
- Q. Malinalda “Tree of Gold” ✧ SA/mal
- ᴺQ. malma “lemon”
- S. Cormallen “Golden Circle” ✧ SA/mal
- S. Malduin “Yellow River” ✧ SA/mal
- S. Malgalad “?yellow radiance”
- S. Mallor
- S. mallorn “gold tree, yellow tree” ✧ SA/mal
Variations
- mal- ✧ SA/mal
malat
root. gold
Derivatives
Elements
Word Gloss MAL “gold, yellow, gold”
This was the root for Elvish words meaning “yellow” for much of Tolkien’s life, though with some minor variations. It appeared as ᴱ√MALA “yellow” (usually mali-) in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. malina “yellow” and ᴱQ. malikon “amber” (QL/58). It also appeared in a list of M-roots at the end of that section (QL/63). It had derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. malon “yellow” and G. malthos “butter cup” (GL/56).
In The Etymologies of the 1930s it seems Tolkien first gave this root as ᴹ√MAL (EtyAC/MAL) but rejected this and replaced it with ᴹ√SMAL “yellow” (Ety/SMAL). It had derivatives like ᴹQ. malina/N. malen “yellow”, ᴹQ. malta/N. malt “gold (as metal)” and ᴹQ. malo/N. hmâl “pollen, yellow powder” (< ᴹ✶smalu), with some revisions in Noldorin forms as Tolkien vacillated on whether or not primitive sm- resulted in voiceless nasal hm- or a voiced nasal m-.
This √SMAL vs. √MAL variation seems to have continued into Tolkien’s later writings, as seen in Common Eldarin: Noun Structure from the early 1950s where ✶malu >> ✶smalu “dust, grit” (PE21/80), probably a later iteration of ᴹ✶smalu “pollen, yellow powder” from The Etymologies. But it seems Tolkien settled on √MAL as evidenced by the extended root √MALAT “gold” from The Shibboleth of Fëanor from 1968 (PM/366).