A root in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “ripe, yellow”, a variant of ᴱ√MALA “yellow” (QL/59). It had derivatives like ᴱQ. marin(a)/G. mar(o)n “ripe” and ᴱQ. marin/G. maros “ripe fruit” (QL/59; GL/56). There are no signs of this root in Tolkien’s later writing; one sign of its abandonment is the change of “orange” from ᴱQ. kulmarin (kul- + marin) to ᴹQ. kuluma (QL/49; Ety/KUL).
Early Primitive Elvish
mara
root. *sand, soil
mara
root. ripe, yellow
gu̯ara-
verb. to dwell
A root appearing in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as root {ᴱ√MAŘA² >>} ᴱ√MARA that Tolkien indicated was a dialectical variation or byform of ᴱ√MṚŘṚ [MṚÐṚ] “grind”, with a single derivative: ᴱQ. marilla “pearl” (QL/59). In the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon, G. brithla “pearl” was most likely a derivative of ᴱ√MṚÐṚ (GL/24). However, in the m-section of GL Tolkien said “mar and môr probably conceal two roots and a confusion [with] mbara”, with various apparent derivatives of mar- such as G. mar “Earth, ground, soil”, G. marol “sand” and G. Môr “the Earth” (GL/56). Tolkien also had G. mara- “dwell”, but it appeared before a variant (m)bara and so likely was derived from ᴱ√MBARA “dwell, live” as mentioned in the Qenya Lexicon (QL/60). As for ᴱ√MARA² itself, it may have meant “✱sand, soil”.