phal

root. foam, splash

This root was connected to Elvish words for foaming waves for much of Tolkien’s life. It first appeared as unglossed ᴱ√FALA in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. falas “shore, beach”, ᴱQ. falmar “wave as it breaks” and ᴱQ. falmo “foam” (QL/37). It had a similar set of derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. falm “a breaker, a wave” and G. falos “sea-marge, surf, coast, line, beach; margin, fringe, edge” (GL/33).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s the root appeared as ᴹ√PHAL “foam” with extended form ᴹ√PHÁLAS and derivatives like ᴹQ. falasse/N. falas “beach” and ᴹQ. falma/N. falf “(crested) wave, breaker” (Ety/PHAL). The root appeared a couple of times in Tolkien’s later writings with glosses like “foam” (PE17/62) and “splash” (PE17/73).

kiris

root. cleave, cleave, [ᴹ√] cut, [ᴱ√] split

faltha-

verb. to foam

A verb for “to foam” in The Etymologies of the 1930s appearing in its infinitive form faltho and derived from ON. phalsa-, where the ancient ls became lth (Ety/PHAL).

falasta-

to foam

falasta- vb. "to foam", participle falastala "foaming, surging" in Markirya

hyar-

cleave

#hyar- vb. "cleave" (1st pers. aorist hyarin "I cleave") (SYAD). Pa.t. probably *hyandë since the R of hyar- was originally D; cf. rer- "sow", pa.t. rendë, from the root RED.

hyar-

verb. cleave

falf

foam

(breaker), pl. felf, coll. pl. falvath

faltha

foam

(i faltha, i falthar)

gwing

foam

(i ’wing) (spindrift, spume, spray blown off wave-tops), no distinct pl. form except with article (in gwing)

ross

foam

(construct ros) (rain, dew, spray [of fall or fountain]), pl. ryss (idh ryss) (Letters:282). Note: homophones mean ”reddish, russet, copper-coloured, red-haired” and also ”polished metal, glitter”