mark

noun. ripe juice, sap, ooze, moisture

A word in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “ripe juice, sap, ooze, moisture” and derived from the early root ᴱ√MṚKṚ (QL/63).

nyas

noun. scratch, score, line, mark

A noun appearing as ᴱQ. nyas “scratch, score, line, mark” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with a stem form of nyast-, derived from the early root ᴱ√NYASA (QL/68).

Neo-Quenya: I would retain ᴺQ. nyas “scratch, score, line, mark” for purposes of Neo-Quenya, but would assume it was derived from a Neo-Root ᴺ√NYATH “scratch”, so having a stem form of nyaþ-.

ripta-

verb. to cut in strips, tear up; to stripe, mark in parallel lines; to flay, flog

A verb appearing as ᴱQ. ripta- with glosses “to cut in strips, tear up - stripe, mark in parallel lines - flay, flog” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s derived from the early root ᴱ√RIPI (QL/80).

Neo-Quenya: Since I retain the Neo-Root ᴺ√RIP with the sense “strip, stripe”, I would also retain ᴺQ. ripta- with all of its early meanings.

teke-

verb. to mark; to write on, write

tet

noun. spot, mark

met

noun. mark, aim, object

maksa-

verb. to cook

A verb appearing as ᴱQ. maksa- “cook” in the Qenya Lexicon under the early root ᴱ√M(B)ASA “cook, bake” (QL/59). A nearby alternate form mark- was added and then deleted.

Neo-Quenya: The root √MBAS continued to appear in Tolkien’s later writings, so I would retain ᴺQ. maxa- “cook” for purposes of Neo-Quenya from primitive ✱mbaskā-. The verbal suffix -kā is very unusual, and maxa- might instead be derived from an ancient noun or adjective.

sar-

verb. to write

A verb appearing as ᴱQ. sar- “write” in Early Qenya Word-lists from the 1920s. Hints at its later validity may be seen in Q. sarat, the names of the letters in the Sarati alphabet, and the root √SAR “score, incise; write”, both mentioned in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60.

Neo-Quenya: Most Neo-Quenya writers use [ᴹQ.] tec- as the ordinary word for write, given its obvious association to Q. tehta and Q. tengwa. One of the challenges with sar- for “write” is that in Tolkien’s later writings, √SAR is also associated with “stone”, as in S. sarn/Q. sar “(small) stone”. In a discussion on the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS) in April 2022, Röandil suggested restoring ᴺQ. sar- with the sense “to mark (i.e. by incision), notch, score; (by later extension) to write”. Based on this I invented the following (fan-based) etymology:

Given its derivatives, it seems likely that √SAR is associated with stone but also with marks, probably originally marks in stone but generalized from there to marks on other substances. From this sar- was used as the basis for the earliest system of writing, both as a verb and in the name sarati. However, with the introduction of Feanor’s tengwar alphabet, this word no longer seemed suitable for as a general writing word, and was displaced by tec-, originally also meaning “make a mark”, but not specifically associated with stone.

Since tec- now usually meant “write”, the archaic sense “mark, score” was restored to sar-. This was aided by the fact that sar- was primarily a transitive verb, and used some awkward constructions. In particular, with the verb sar-, the direct object was always the thing written on, rather than the thing written. Thus with sar-, the proper way to say “write a sentence on paper” was actually sare hyalin quettalénen “write [on] paper with a sentence [instrumental]”, a construction that still survives, though now somewhat archaic. Meanwhile, the direct object of tec- is the thing written, so one would say tece quettale hyalinesse “write a sentence on paper”.

Note that this last construction [sare hyalin quettalénen] is inspired by Tolkien’s usage of the ᴱQ. verb teke- from the 1910s (QL/90), and essentially reverses of the Early Qenya paradigm of the 1910s and 20s, switching the roles of tek- and sar-. There is no evidence that the above Neo-Quenya discussion matches Tolkien’s own thoughts on the subject, so it should be considered “etymological fan-fiction”.

tekta-

verb. to write

-léni

suffix. long

-lénu

suffix. long

anda

adjective. long

andra

adjective. long

maksar

noun. cook

A word appearing as ᴱQ. maksar “cook” in the Qenya Lexicon based on maksa- “to cook” (QL/59).

Neo-Quenya: Since I retain ᴺQ. maxa- “to cook” for purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would also retain the noun ᴺQ. maxar “cook” as an agental formation.