Tolkien used very similar forms for Elvish words for “cold” for all of his life. The earliest iteration of this root was unglossed ᴱ√RIŊI in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. rin (ring-) “dew” and ᴱQ. ringa “damp, cold, chilly” (QL/80). The root had similar derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. rî “coolness, cool” and G. ring “cool, cold” (GL/65). In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien gave the root {ᴹ√RINGĀ >>} ᴹ√RINGI “cold” with derivatives like ᴹQ. ringe/N. rhing “cold” (Ety/RINGI; EtyAC/RINGI). Primitive forms ✶riñgi “chill” and ✶riñgā appeared in Common Eldarin: Noun Structure from the early 1950s (PE21/80), and Christopher Tolkien mentioned √ring as the basis for cold words in the Silmarillion Appendix (SA/ring).
Tolkien used very similar forms for Elvish words for “cold” for all of his life. The earliest iteration of this root was unglossed ᴱ√RIŊI in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. rin (ring-) “dew” and ᴱQ. ringa “damp, cold, chilly” (QL/80). The root had similar derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. rî “coolness, cool” and G. ring “cool, cold” (GL/65). In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien gave the root {ᴹ√RINGĀ >>} ᴹ√RINGI “cold” with derivatives like ᴹQ. ringe/N. rhing “cold” (Ety/RINGI; EtyAC/RINGI). Primitive forms ✶riñgi “chill” and ✶riñgā appeared in Common Eldarin: Noun Structure from the early 1950s (PE21/80), and Christopher Tolkien mentioned √ring as the basis for cold words in the Silmarillion Appendix (SA/ring).