mapalin

noun. plane [tree], sycamore

A word appearing as ᴱQ. mapalin “plane or sycamore” in Qenya Lexicon and Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa of the 1910s, apparently a combination of ᴱQ. má “hand” with some form of the early root ᴱ√PALA “flatness” (QL/57, 71; PME/57). Here “plane” probably refers to the plane tree (genus Platinus), and the word mapalin probably refers to the hand-like five-lobed leaves of the European variants of these trees, as suggested by the editors. Various adjectives can be applied to this tree-name for different subspecies: ᴱQ. varivoite “foreign”, ᴱQ. fatsevoite “tasseled”, ᴱQ. rámavoite “winged”, ᴱQ. tarukka “horned”, and ᴱQ. wilwarinda “butterflylike”, the last three for varieties of sycamores.

The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had an alternate word ᴱQ. palapapte for “sycamore”, a combination of ᴱ√PALA “flatness” and ᴱQ. pat (papt-) “small leaf” (QL/71). Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s had ᴱQ. maisilanda “sycamore” (PE16/140), possibly a combination of an early iteration of ᴹQ. maite (maisi-) “handy” and ᴱQ. landa “wide”. ᴱQ. mapalin “plane [tree]” also reappeared in this 1920s list (PE16/140).

Neo-Quenya: I’d retain ᴺQ. mapalin “plane tree [Platinus], sycamore, (lit.) hand-flat” for purposes of Neo-Quenya, since the relevant roots survived in Tolkien’s later writings. I would update the adjectives for the various subspecies to ᴹQ. ettelëa “foreign”, ᴺQ. fassitë “tasseled”, ᴺQ. rámaitë “winged”, ᴺQ. rassëa “horned”, and Q. vilvarindëa “like a butterfly”.

Cognates

• G. mavlantos “sycamore”