Primitive elvish
mi/imi
root. in, within, [ᴹ√] inside
Derivatives
- ✶imbi “between” ✧ PE17/092; VT47/11; VT47/30
- ✶mī “in, within” ✧ PE17/092; VT47/30
- ✶mīni “between” ✧ VT47/11
- S. mîn “[thing] between; gap, space, barrier; anything intervening between two other things” ✧ VT47/11
- Q. imbë “deep valley, wide ravine, (lit.) tween-land, deep valley, (wide) ravine, [ᴹQ.] glen, dell, (lit.) tween-land”
- Q. imíca “among” ✧ VT43/30
- Q. mi “in, in, [ᴹQ.] within” ✧ VT43/30
- Q. mina “into, in, into, in, [ᴹQ.] to the inside” ✧ VT43/30
- Q. mitta “between, [ᴹQ.] inwards, into, [ᴱQ.] in; [Q.] between” ✧ VT43/30
- Q. mitta- “to insert, to insert; [ᴹQ.] to come in, [ᴱQ.] enter” ✧ VT43/30
- S. im “between”
- ᴺS. mîg “among”
- S. minna- “to go in, enter” ✧ PE17/041
Element in
Variations
- MI ✧ PE17/041; PE17/165; VT47/11
- IMI ✧ PE17/092; PE17/155
- mi ✧ VT43/30
- imi ✧ VT47/30
imi
root. in
This invertible root had the basic sense “in(side)” for all of Tolkien’s life. It first appeared as ᴱ√IMI “in, into” and ᴱ√MĪ² in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. imi “in, inside” and ᴱQ. mitta- “enter” (QL/42, 61). Deleted Gnomish forms like G. bi “in” and G. bin “into” might be derived from a strengthened form of the root ✱ᴱ√MBI (GL/21) but Tolkien said the undeleted prefix bi- or G. ba “in“ had a Qenya cognate ve (GL/20), so I think these were based on some other (abandoned) root.
Both ᴹ√MI “inside” and its inversion ᴹ√IMI “in” appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/MI; EtyAC/IMI), though the only derivative of the inversion was ᴹ√IMBE “dell, deep vale” (EtyAC/IMI, IMBE). The root or its inversion appeared a number of times in Tolkien’s later writings as well, up into the 1960s (PE17/41, 92; VT47/11, 30).