rad

root. *back, return, [ᴹ√] back, return

This root first appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as ᴹ√RAD “back, return” with derivatives like ᴹQ. randa/N. anrand “cycle, age (100 Valian Years)” as well as Dor. radhon “east” (Ety/RAD). It reappeared (unglossed) in Outline of Phonology (OP2) as an example of a root where medial d dissimilated to l in Quenya rather than becoming r as usual: √RAD > Q. ral- (PE19/99). Neither the root or the verb were glossed in OP2, so it is unclear whether or not it retained its 1930s meaning, though there is no reason to believe it didn’t.

khan

root. back

tō/oto

root. back

The earliest appearance of this root was ᴹ√TOTO- “repeat” from Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948 (PE23/109). The root appeared as √TŌ/OTO in a discussion of prefixes for “back” from around 1959, where Tolkien specified its meaning as “back as an answer, or return by another agent to an action affecting him, as in answering, replying, avenging, requiting, repaying, rewarding”; Tolkien also considered the forms √UTU/TŪ (PE17/166). In this 1959 note Tolkien crossed √TŌ/OTO through and seems to have replaced it with √KHAN. Tolkien mentioned the root √OT in a discussion of numbers from the late 1960s, but only to specify that “there was no primitive base OT-” (VT47/16).