quessë

feather

quessë noun "feather", also name of tengwa #4 (Appendix E, WJ:417, KWES, VT45:24); súriquessë "wind feather" (referring to a "tuft of radiating grass" in a drawing by Tolkien) (J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator, p. 197)

quessë

noun. feather

The Quenya word for “feather” and the name of tengwa #4 [z] (LotR/1122).

Conceptual Development: Some similar words appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√QASA: ᴱQ. qasil “arrow-feather, arrow” and ᴱQ. qasilla “tuft, nodding spray, tassel, plume” (QL/76); quasil was only glossed “arrow” in the contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa (PME/76). ᴹQ. qesse “feather” first appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√KWES (Ety/KWES), already the name of tengwa #4 (EtyAC/KWES). It was also the name of this tengwa in notes on the Feanorian Alphabet from the 1930s and 1940s (PE22/22, 51, 61), and remained so into the published version of The Lord of the Rings.

quesset

pillow

quesset ("q")noun "pillow"; probably *quessec*- since the Sindarin (or "Noldorin") cognate pesseg points to a primitive form kwessek- (compare filit, filic**-) (KWES)

quessetéma

qu-series

quessetéma noun "qu-series", velarized series: fourth column of the Tengwar system (Appendix E)

quessetéma

noun. kw-series

niquis

frost-patterns; ice-flake or snowflake also petal (loose) of a white flower

niquis noun "frost-patterns; ice-flake or snowflake also petal (loose) of a white flower" (stem niquits- or niquiss-), also niquessë by association with quessë "feather" (WJ:417, PE17:168). In early "Qenya", the gloss was simply "snow" (LT1:266).