nō/ono

root. beget, give birth to; be born, beget, give birth to; be born; [ᴱ√] become

This root was associated with Elvish words for “birth” for most of Tolkien’s life. It first appeared as ᴱ√NŌ “become, be born” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. nosta- “give birth to; cause” and ᴱQ. nosse “folk, kin, people” (QL/66). Likewise in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon there was G. nosta- “am born” and G. nothri “family, kinship” (GL/61), and in the Name Lists for to The Fall of Gondolin (NFG), G. nos was used as the equivalent of ᴱQ. nosse (PE15/22, 24). Both Q. nossë and S. nos(s) appeared regularly in Tolkien’s later writings.

In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien gave ᴹ√NŌ/ONO “beget” as an invertible root, with derivatives of the inverted form including ᴹQ. onta- “beget, create” and N. odhron “parent” (Ety/NŌ, ONO). The invertible root appeared regularly in Tolkien’s later writings, usually with the sense “beget” but in one place also glossed “be born” (PE17/170).

Derivatives

• ✶nōrē “kindred, race” ✧ PE17/026; PE17/106; PE17/107; PE17/169; WJ/413
  • Q. nórë “land, country; †people, race, tribe, land, country, [ᴹQ.] region where certain people live, [ᴱQ.] nation; [Q.] †people, race, tribe, [ᴹQ.] folk, [ᴱQ.] family” ✧ PE17/106; PE17/107; PE17/169; WJ/413
• ✶nōse “race, tribe, people” ✧ PE17/169
  • Q. nos(së) “kindred, family, kindred, family, [ᴹQ.] clan, ‘house’, [ᴱQ.] folk, kin, people”
• ᴺQ. nó “design”
• Q. nóna “born”
• Q. nos(së) “kindred, family, kindred, family, [ᴹQ.] clan, ‘house’, [ᴱQ.] folk, kin, people” ✧ PE17/111
• Q. nosta- “to beget, be begotten, to beget, [ᴱQ.] give birth to; [Q.] to be begotten, *be born [impersonal]; [ᴱQ.] to cause” ✧ PE17/111; PE17/170
• Q. nostar “parent, begetter, *ancestor; parent, begetter” ✧ PE17/111
• Q. onna “child, child, *offspring; [ᴹQ.] creature” ✧ PE17/170; PE17/170
• Q. onta- “to beget, to beget, *conceive (a child); [ᴹQ.] to create” ✧ PE17/170
• ᴺS. enia- “to be born, be generated, result”
• S. nos(s) “family, kindred, clan, house; race, tribe, people” ✧ PE17/169
  • Wes. nas “people” ✧ PM/320
• S. onna- “*to birth, give birth to” ✧ WJ/387

Element in

• Q. Apanónar “After-born” ✧ WJ/387
• Q. Minyon “First-begotten”
• ᴺQ. onya- “to be born, be begotten”
• S. gwanunig “twin”

Variations

• NŌ ✧ PE17/026; PE17/168
• ONO/NŌ ✧ PE17/106; PE17/107; PE17/170; PE17/171
• ONO ✧ PE17/111; WJ/387; WJ/413
• NO/NŌ ✧ PE17/168
• (o)nō ✧ PE17/169
• ON/NO ✧ PE17/170
• on/no ✧ VT48/25