ópa

noun. mouth (opening of which the lips are the edges)

A word appearing in some 1964 notes on various elements of the mouth, specifically referring to the “opening of which the lips, or pempi, are the edges”, from the root √OP (PE17/126). Tolkien initially wrote (and then deleted) the form {ōka} and the root {√OK}. This is likely a technical term, as opposed to the more ordinary word for mouth: Q. anto.

Conceptual Development: A similar word ᴱQ. óvo or ó “mouth” appeared in Early Qenya Word-lists from the 1920s (PE16/136).