nō

root. become, be born

no(wo)

root. ahead, in front; after of time, tomorrow

A root given as ᴱ√NŌ in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with extended variants ᴱ√NOWO and ᴱ√NONO (both marked by Tolkien with a “?”) and glossed “ahead, in front; after of time, tomorrow” (QL/66). It was contrasted with ᴱ√DYE(NE) of the opposite meaning. It had derivatives like ᴱQ. nuo “tomorrow” and ᴱQ. nó “after (only of time)”. The latter appeared regularly in Tolkien’s later writings, but he kept vacillating on whether it meant “after” or “before”: see the entry on Q. nó for further discussion. For example, the word ✶nō “behind” appeared in a set of primitive monosyllabic forms from the late 1960s, but that list was marked through. As for the other branch of the Elvish languages, ᴱ√NŌ “after” had several derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon (GL/61) but no obviously related forms in later Noldorin or Sindarin.

yo(no) Reconstructed

root. YO(NO)

vo(no) Reconstructed

root. son

ū

root. under

The root ᴱ√Ū⁽¹⁾ “under” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as a reduced form of {ᴱ√UGU >>} ᴱ√UƷU, with derivatives like ᴱQ. ū “beneath” and ᴱQ. umbe “dale, dell” (QL/96-97). It also had derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. um⁽⁾ “lowlying” and G. umbel “a dell” (GL/74). Tolkien noted that ᴱ√Ū also meant “not”, and contrasted ᴱ√Ū¹ “under” with ᴱ√NŪ (ᴱ√NUHU) of similar meaning (QL/68, 96). Indeed, in Tolkien’s later writings, √NŪ/UNU was the usual basis for “under” words, and ᴱ√Ū¹ “under” seems to have been abandoned.

ī

root. be