rō/oro

root. up(wards); rise (up), go high, mount, up(wards); rise (up), go high, mount; [ᴹ√] high, [ᴱ√] steepness, rising

This invertible root had a long history in Tolkien’s writings. Its earliest iteration was in a pair of roots in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s: ᴱ√OŘO [OÐO] with derivatives having to do with the “dawn”, and ᴱ√ORO “steepness, rising” with which it was much confused (QL/70). The latter had derivatives like ᴱQ. orme “summit, crest, hilltop” and ᴱQ. orto- “raise” (QL/70), and Tolkien mentioned an inverted variant ᴱ√RŌ or ᴱ√ROHO with derivatives like ᴱQ. róna- “arise, rise, ascend” (QL/80). The contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon also gave it as in an invertible root ᴱ√rō-, oro with derivatives like G. oros “rising” and G. ront “high, steep” (GL/63, 66).

The root reappeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as ᴹ√ORO “up, rise, high” and ᴹ√RŌ “rise” (Ety/ORO, RŌ). The root was mentioned very frequently in his writings from the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s, generally glossed “rise” or “up(wards)”. Thus the root was very well established in Tolkien’s mind.

Derivatives

• ✶ōre “arising”
• ✶ornā “uprising, tall” ✧ PE17/112
  • Q. orwa “high, lofty”
• ✶ornē “(straight) tree” ✧ Let/426
  • Q. ornë “(tall) tree, (tall) tree, [ᴹQ.] high isolated tree” ✧ Let/426
  • S. eryn “wood, forest (of trees)” ✧ PE17/033; PE17/119
  • S. orn “(tall straight) tree” ✧ Let/426; NM/349; UT/266
• ✶orta- “to rise, ascend” ✧ PE18/106; PE22/134
• ✶ortā- “to raise” ✧ PE18/089; PE18/106
  • Q. orta- “to raise, cause to rise, lift (up)” ✧ PE22/159
• ✶orya- “to rise” ✧ PE22/134
  • Q. orya- “to rise” ✧ PE22/157
• ᴺQ. oricon “heather”
• Q. oro “mount, mountain, hill” ✧ PE17/063
• ᴺQ. orosta “ascension”
• ᴺQ. orsa “upper, above”
• Q. orta- “to raise, cause to rise, lift (up)” ✧ Let/426; PE17/063; PE22/156
• Q. orta- “to rise” ✧ PE17/063
• Q. orto “mount, mountain, hill, [ᴹQ.] mountain-top; [Q.] mount, mountain” ✧ PE17/063
• Q. orya- “to rise” ✧ PE17/063; PE22/156; PE22/163
• S. orod “mountain” ✧ PE17/063
• ᴺS. orth “upper”

Element in

• ✶orta- “to rise, ascend” ✧ PE22/129
• √(S)RŌ “east”
• Q. oromar “lofty hall, high-mansion, high (lofty) dwelling” ✧ PE17/063
• ᴺQ. oroparmen “high school, university”
• ᴺQ. orpano “ridgepole”
• Q. rómen “east, uprising, sunrise” ✧ PE17/063

Variations

• OR/RO ✧ Let/426; NM/176; PE22/134
• OR/ORO ✧ PE17/063
• RŌ ✧ PE17/063; PE17/182
• OR/RŌ ✧ PE17/064; PE17/112; PE22/133
• OR/ORO/RŌ ✧ PE17/171
• or/ro ✧ PE18/088; VT48/25
• OR ✧ PE18/089; PE18/106; PE22/129; PE22/156; VT41/11; VT48/31 (OR)
• oro/ro ✧ PE22/163
• or- ✧ VT41/13

oro

root. up(wards); rise (up), go high, mount