A root in a discussion of prefixes for “back” from around 1959, which Tolkien specified as meaning: “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). But Tolkien crossed this all 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).
Primitive elvish
rad
root. *back, return, [ᴹ√] back, return
Derivatives
khan
root. back
Derivatives
- Q. han- “*back as an answer or return by another agent” ✧ PE17/166
Variations
- KHAN ✧ PE17/157; PE17/166
tō/oto
root. back
Element in
- Q. tóquet- “to answer” ✧ PE17/166
Variations
TŌ/OT(O)✧ PE17/166 (TŌ/OT(O)); PE17/187 (TŌ/OT(O))OT✧ PE17/167; VT47/16 (OT)OT(O)✧ PE17/171 (OT(O))TŪ✧ PE17/188 (TŪ)UTU/TŪ✧ PE17/189 (UTU/TŪ)
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.