róma (2) noun "loud sound, trumpet-sound" (ROM). In the pre-classical Tengwar system presupposed in the Etymologies, róma was also the name of tengwa #30, which letter Tolkien would later call silmë nuquerna instead.
Quenya
silmë nuquerna
noun. s-reversed
Variations
- silme nuquerna ✧ LotR/1123
nuquerna
reversed
róma
loud sound, trumpet-sound
silmë
starlight
silmë noun "starlight", also name of tengwa #29 (Appendix E), though in the pre-classical Tengwar system presupposed in the Etymologies, the name silmë instead applied to tengwa #3 (VT46:13). Silmë nuquerna "_s reversed", name of tengwa #30, similar to normal silmë but turned upside down (Appendix E)_. In the Etymologies, stem SIL, silmë is defined as the "light of Silpion" (Telperion), and also a poetic word for "silver".
silmë
noun. starlight, starlight; [ᴹQ.] silver [light], moonlight, light of Silpion
A word for “starlight” and also the name of tengwa #29 [i] (LotR/1123), clearly derived from the root √SIL.
Conceptual Development: The earliest hint of this word was in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s where ᴱQ. silmea seems to be an adjective meaning “✱lunar” (QL/56). ᴱQ. silme also seems to be an adjectival element “gleaming, silver” in ᴱQ. silmerána “gleaming moon, silver moon” from the Oilima Markirya poem and its drafts from around 1930 (MC/220; PE16/75). In The Etymologies of the 1930s ᴹQ. silme was derived from primitive ᴹ✶silimē “light of Silpion, †silver” under the root ᴹ√SIL “shine silver” (Ety/SIL) and thus seems to mean “moonlight”. Indeed, silme had the gloss “moonlight” in notes on The Feanorian Alphabet from the 1930s and 40s (PE22/22, 51), where it was already the name of tengwa #29. It became “starlight” in Appendix E of The Lord of the Rings, however (LotR/1123), and elsewhere “moonlight” was isilmë (MC/223).
Derivations
- √SIL “shine (white or silver)”
Element in
- Q. isilmë “moonlight”
- Q. silmë nuquerna “s-reversed” ✧ LotR/1123
Variations
- silme ✧ LotR/1123
ilma Reconstructed
proper name. Starlight
An (archaic?) name for “Starlight”, it is not directly attested in Tolkien’s later writing, but appears as an element in several names (SA/ilm). It is a derivative of the root √(Ñ)GIL “shine (white)”. Elsewhere, the usual Quenya word for “starlight” is given as silmë (LotR/1123).
Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. ilma “air” appeared in Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s (PE16/142). The name ᴹQ. Ilma “Starlight” is directly attested in Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s (LR/205), where it first appeared as Silma (SM/240). Ilma also appeared in The Etymologies as a derivative of ᴹ√GIL (Ety/GIL), which is the source of the etymology noted above.
Derivations
- √(Ñ)GIL “shine (white); silver glint; white or silver light”
Element in
Variations
- ilm- ✧ SA/ilm
Ilma
starlight
Ilma noun "starlight" (GIL)
Ilmarë
starlight
Ilmarë noun "starlight", also fem. name, referring to a Maia (GIL, SA:ilm-)
nuquerna adj. "reversed", or perhaps rather *"turned upside down". Attested in the phrases silmë nuquerna and árë nuquerna, q.v.