A word appearing as nîf or nivol “phantom, (lit.) a seeming” in notes from 1957, that Tolkien specified was “an appearance having no existence in the physical world, existing only as a conception/memory/picture in one mind, and more or less accurately transferred direct to another” (NM/238). It was likely related to the root √NIM, a variant of √NEM “seem”.
A word appearing as nîf or nivol “phantom, (lit.) a seeming” in notes from 1957, that Tolkien specified was “an appearance having no existence in the physical world, existing only as a conception/memory/picture in one mind, and more or less accurately transferred direct to another” (NM/238). It was likely related to the root √NIM, a variant of √NEM “seem”.