slimbi

adjective. sliding, gliding, slippery, sleek

lik

root. glide, slip, slide, drip

A root in notes from the late 1960s glossed “glide, slide, slip, drip” where it served as the basis for primitive ✶linkwē for “light” as an ethereal and liquid-like substance (NM/283). The Quenya word Q. linquë had a similar meaning, but Sindarin S. limp “(bright/clear/gleaming) liquid” was used of used of pools or rills of clean water, and so served as an element in the name S. Limhír (†Limphîr) “Limlight” (NM/284).

talat

root. to slip (down), collapse, fall in ruin; slipping, sliding, falling down; ground (bottom), to slip (down), collapse, fall in ruin; slipping, sliding, falling down; ground (bottom); [ᴹ√] slide down, incline, slope, lean, tip, topple over

This root was connected to the name Q. Atalantë “Downfall(en)” as a sort of multilingual pun on “Atlantis”. The first appearance of this root was as unglossed ᴱ√TḶTḶ in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. talta “shaky, wobbling, tottering; sloping, slanting” and ᴱQ. tilt- “make slope, incline (tr.), decline, shake at foundations, make totter” (QL/93). Further signs of this early root can be found in the Early Noldorin Dictionary of the 1920s where Tolkien gave ᴱ✶tḹtá > ᴱN. tlad “hillside, slope” and ᴱ✶tḷtā́ > ᴱN. tleth/ᴱQ. tilta “slanting” (PE13/165).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s the root appeared as ᴹ√TALAT “to slope, lean, tip” with derivatives like ᴹQ. talta-/N. atlanna- “to slope” and ᴹQ. talta/N. talad “an incline” (Ety/TALÁT). The root was mentioned regularly thereafter, mostly in a verbal sense with glosses like “incline, slope, slide down” (PE18/38), “slip (downwards)” (PE18/61), “topple over, slip down” (SD/249), “slip (down)” (PE18/85) and “collapse, fall in ruin” (PM/158). In notes from the late 1950s or early 1960s, Tolkien gave the root a noun sense “ground (bottom)” alongside “fall down” (PE17/150) and in a 1964 letter to Christopher Bretherton gave it the sense “slipping, sliding, falling down” (Let/347).

lhim

adjective. sliding, gliding, slippery, sleek

taltha-

verb. to slip, slide down, collapse

A neologism posted by Steve - Ríon on 2018-11-25 in the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS) with the gloss “to slip”. It is based on OS. taltha-, attested in its future form talthathō- and derived from ✶talta- [talat-] “slip, slide down, collapse” (PE22/133).

danna-

verb. to fall

A Sindarin verb for “fall” in Notes on Galadriel’s Song (NGS) from the late 1950s or early 1960s, cognate to Q. lanta- and derived from √DAN-TA (PE17/62). Elsewhere the root for “fall down” was √DAT (VT47/29; VT48/24; Ety/DAT), so √DAN-TA was probably a nasal-infixed variant of the root; compare ᴹ√DAT vs. ᴹ√DANT from The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/DAT). In Sindarin, medial ancient nt became nn, so ✱danta- > S. danna-.

Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. {lanta- >>} lantha- “fall onto, settle on, alight” (GL/52). It had a past form lantathi with a light pencil stroke through it indicating was thus tentatively rejected. This Gnomish verb is clearly cognate to ᴱQ. lant- “drop, fall” from the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√LANTAN [LṆTṆ] (QL/51).

The Etymologies of the 1930s had the root {ᴹ√LANT >>} ᴹ√DAT or ᴹ√DANT “fall down” (Ety/DAT, TALÁT; EtyAC/LANTA). Under the entry for ᴹ√DAT, Tolkien had N. dant- “to fall” with passive participle dannen “fallen” (Ety/DAT). Likely N. dant- was a stem form which would become dann- when inflected, since in Noldorin of the 1930s and 40s ancient medial nt also became nn, as it did in Sindarin.

talt

slipping

(adj.) talt (lenited dalt, pl. ?telt) (falling, insecure)

talt

slipping

(lenited dalt, pl. ?telt) (falling, insecure)

hlimbë

adjective. sliding, gliding, slippery, sleek

talta-

verb. to slip, slide down, collapse, fall, to slip, slide down, collapse, fall, [ᴹQ.] slip down, slope

A verb derived from the root √TALAT, with various glosses like “slip, slide down, collapse” (MC/223), “slope, slip, slide down” (Ety/TALÁT), or “slip, fall” (PE22/113). In the Markirya poem of the 1960s it was translated “fall(ing)” in the phrase elenillor pella talta-taltala “beyond the stars falling”, but this seems to be a loose translation since in the glossary of the poem talta- was translated “slip, slide down, collapse” (MC/222-223). However, in Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) written in 1969, talta was simply glossed “fall” (PE22/164).

Tolkien used this verb as the primary example for the class of talat-stem verbs.

Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had a similar but transitive verb ᴱQ. tilt- “make slope, incline (tr.), decline, shake at foundations, make totter, etc.” under the early root ᴱ√TḶTḶ (QL/80). Its past tense form talte is the result of differing phonetic developments for long ḹ vs. short ḷ in Early Qenya.

talat-

slipping, sliding, falling down

talat- vb. a stem used for "slipping, sliding, falling down" (Letters:347), cf. atalta-, talta- and talantië

talta-

slip, slide down, collapse, slope

talta- vb. "slip, slide down, collapse, slope" (TALÁT); reduplicated stem in the participle talta-taltala in Markirya, simply translated "falling" in MC:215. Strong intransitive conjugation: present talta, aorist talt- [derived from talati > talti, hence presumably *talti*- with endings and taltë without any], past talantë, perfect ataltië. Weak transitive conjugation: present taltëa, aorist talta, past taltanë**. This is said to be the conjugation type of a certain class of verbs, namely "√TALAT stems" (PE17:186).

lic-

verb. to glide, slip, slide, drip

A neologism coined by Luinyelle posted on 2023-01-11 in the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS) based on the root √LIK of the same meaning. Luinyelle suggested this verb could also mean “drip” (like the root), but I prefer ᴺQ. lipta- for “to drip”.

lanta-

verb. to fall, to fall; [ᴱQ.] to drop

The Quenya verb for “to fall”, dating all the way back to the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, though in that document it had the form ᴱQ. lant- and the additional gloss “drop” (QL/51). In the Qenya Lexicon it was derived from the early root ᴱ√LANTAN [LṆTṆ], but in The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien changed the root {ᴹ√LANTA >>} ᴹ√DA(N)T “fall down” as the basis for ᴹQ. lanta- “to fall” (Ety/DAT; EtyAC/LANTA). Q. lanta- “fall” appeared regularly in Tolkien’s later writings as well (MC/222; PE17/62; VT49/47), most notably in the Namárië poem in its first phrase: ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen “ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind” (LotR/377).

The word lanta was occasionally used as a noun for “a fall”; see that entry for discussion.

Neo-Quenya: In Tolkien’s later writings, lanta- was used only for intransitive “fall”. However, we have no Quenya verbs for transitive “drop” other than 1910s ᴱQ. lant-, so I would assume that lanta- can be used this way as well for purposes of Neo-Quenya (QL/51). For example, lantan “I fall” vs. lantan i macil “I drop [make fall] the sword”.

talta-

verb. slip, fall

dant-

verb. to fall

talt

adjective. slipping, falling, insecure