Minnónar

first-born

Minnónar pl. noun "First-born", Elves (as contrasted to Apanónar, the After-born, Men). Sg. #Minnóna (WJ:403)

minnónar

collective name. First-born

A name for the Elves as the first-born children of Ilúvatar, in contrast to Apanónar “After-born” as a name for Men (WJ/403). It is a compound of minya “first” and the plural form of the adjective nóna “born”.

Conceptual Development: The similar but rejected terms ᴹQ. Estanosse “Firstborn” and ᴹQ. Esselda “✱First-elves” appear in The Etymologies (Ety/ESE, EtyAC/ESE).

Elements

Word	Gloss
minya	“first; eminent, prominent”
nóna	“born”

minya

first

minya adj. "first" (MINI) (cf. Minyatur, Minyon); "eminent, prominent" (VT42:24, 25). Minyar "Firsts", the original name of the Vanyar (or rather the direct Quenya descendant of the original Primitive Quendian name) (WJ:380)

enna

first

[enna adj. "first" (VT45:12)]

inga

first

inga (2) adj. "first" (ING)

esta

first

esta (2) adj. "first" (ESE/ESET); this entry was marked with a query. The word Yestarë (q.v.) "Beginning-day" in LotR suggests that Tolkien decided to change the stem in question to _YESE/YESET_. We could then read *yesta for esta (but later this became a noun "beginning" rather than an adj. "first", PE17:120) and also prefix a y to the other words derived from ESE/ESET (essë* > yessë, essëa > yessëa). Estanossë noun "the firstborn", read likewise Yestanossë** (*Yestanessi?) but in a later text, Tolkien used Minnónar (q.v.) for "the Firstborn" as a name of the Elves, and this form may be preferred. _(In the Etymologies as printed in LR, the word _Estanossë is cited as "Estanesse", but according to VT45:12, the second-to-last vowel is actually o in Tolkien's manuscript.)

setta

first

[setta, setya adj. "first" (possibly also "primary", but Tolkien's gloss was not certainly legible) (VT46:13)]