An adjective for “stunted, shortened, dwarf(ed)” derived from the root √NUK of similar meaning, that was “especially applied to things that though in themselves full-grown were smaller or shorter than their kind, and were hard, twisted or ill-shapen” (PE17/45; VT39/7; WJ/413). It was the basis for the (somewhat insulting) word nauco for “dwarf” (PE17/45; WJ/388).
Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. kauka “crooked, bent, bowed, humped” under the early root ᴱ√KAẆA “stoop” (QL/45), a word that was also mentioned in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon as the cognate to G. caug “humped, bulging; bent” (GL/25).
nauca ("k")adj. "stunted" (VT39:7), "stunted, shortened, dwarf(ed)" (PE17:45), especially applied to things that though in themselves full-grown were smaller or shorter than their kind, and were hard, twisted or ill-shapen (WJ:413). The word can also be used as a noun "dwarf" (PE17:45), the meaning it also had in Tolkiens early "Qenya" (LT1:261), but the distinct noun-form Nauco may be more usual.