Quenya 

súriquessë

wind feather

súriquessë noun "wind feather" (referring to a "tuft of radiating grass" in a drawing by Tolkien) (J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator, p. 197)

súriquessë

noun. species of grass, (lit.) wind feather

The name of grass-like plant, a label of one of Tolkien’s drawings in the book J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator (TAI/197), like a combination of súrë (súri-) “wind” and quessë “feather”.

Elements

WordGloss
súrë“wind, breeze”
quessë“feather”

quessë

feather

quessë noun "feather", also name of tengwa #4 (Appendix E, WJ:417, KWES, VT45:24); súriquessë "wind feather" (referring to a "tuft of radiating grass" in a drawing by Tolkien) (J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator, p. 197)

quessë

noun. feather

The Quenya word for “feather” and the name of tengwa #4 [z] (LotR/1122).

Conceptual Development: Some similar words appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√QASA: ᴱQ. qasil “arrow-feather, arrow” and ᴱQ. qasilla “tuft, nodding spray, tassel, plume” (QL/76); quasil was only glossed “arrow” in the contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa (PME/76). ᴹQ. qesse “feather” first appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√KWES (Ety/KWES), already the name of tengwa #4 (EtyAC/KWES). It was also the name of this tengwa in notes on the Feanorian Alphabet from the 1930s and 1940s (PE22/22, 51, 61), and remained so into the published version of The Lord of the Rings.

Cognates

  • ᴺS. pess “feather”

Derivations

  • ᴹ√KWES “*feather”

Element in

  • Q. niquessë “frost-patterns; snowflake, ice-flake; (lit.) chill feather” ✧ PE17/168; WJ/417
  • Q. quessetéma “kw-series”
  • Q. súriquessë “species of grass, (lit.) wind feather”

Variations

  • quesse ✧ LotR/1122; PE17/123; PE17/168; WJ/417
Quenya [LotR/1122; PE17/123; PE17/168; WJ/417] Group: Eldamo. Published by

súru

wind

súru noun "wind" (MC:213, 216, 220; this is "Qenya"; Tolkien's later Quenya has súrë)

súrë

wind

súrë noun "wind", stem súri- because of primitive form sūrǐ- (PE17:62),hence the instrumental form súrinen "in the wind" or more literally "by the wind" (Nam, RGEO:66,Markirya, J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator p. 197); Súrion masc.name, "Wind-son" (Appendix A). Early "Qenya" has súru (MC:213, 216, 220). See also súriquessë.

vailë

noun. wind, [strong] wind, *gale

An obscure word for “wind” in notes from December 1959 (D59) derived from the root √WAYA and appearing in various forms: vëa, vaiwe, and vaile, the last of these with an adjectival form vailima “windy” (P17/189). A similar set of Quenya derivatives of √WAY appeared in notes from 1957, but there most of the forms were rejected: {vaiwe, view-, vaive, víw}, along with unrejected váva (PE17/33-34). Tolkien considered all these as possible cognates of S. gwae “wind”.

Conceptual Development: Precursors include ᴱQ. ’wā “wind” from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√GWĀ (QL/102), ᴱQ. or vanwe “wind” from Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1930s (PE16/142) and ᴹQ. vaiwa “wind” from The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√WAIWA (Ety/WĀ). Thus the Quenya forms were much less stable than their Sindarin equivalent and its precursor, which were simply G. gwâ “wind” (GL/43; PE13/146) >> N./S. gwae(w) “wind” (Ety/WĀ; NM/237; PE17/33-34, 189).

Neo-Quenya: Of the various forms, I prefer Q. vailë since (a) it is later, (b) has an adjectival form and (c) has a possible direct cognate S. gwael “✱wind”, also from around the same time. Q. súrë is the usual word for “wind” and is thus preferable for most uses, but I think vailë might be used for a strong wind or gale, since elsewere in Quenya derivatives of √ seem to be tied to stronger winds: hwarwa “violent wind”, vangwë “storm” (NM/237).

Changes

  • waiwevaiwe ✧ PE17/189

Cognates

  • S. gwae “wind” ✧ PE17/189

Derivations

  • WAY “blow (of wind), be disturbed” ✧ PE17/189
  • waiwa(y) “*wind” ✧ PE17/189
    • WAY “blow (of wind), be disturbed” ✧ PE17/033; PE17/189
  • waile “*wind” ✧ PE17/189
    • WAY “blow (of wind), be disturbed” ✧ PE17/189

Element in

  • Q. vailima “windy” ✧ PE17/189

Phonetic Developments

DevelopmentStagesSources
WAYA > vëa[waja] > [wea] > [βea] > [vea]✧ PE17/189
waiwa(y) > vaiwe[waiwai] > [βaiwai] > [vaiwai] > [vaiwe]✧ PE17/189
waile > vaile[waile] > [βaile] > [vaile]✧ PE17/189

Variations

  • vëa ✧ PE17/189
  • vaiwe ✧ PE17/189
  • vaile ✧ PE17/189
  • waiwe ✧ PE17/189 (waiwe)

wai

wind, weave

wai (what the primitive element ¤wei "wind, weave" became in Quenya; therefore confused with the stem WAY "enfold") (WEY)

vailë

wind

vailë noun "wind" (PE17:189)

vaiwë

wind

vaiwë noun "wind" (PE17:189)

vaiwë

noun. wind

wailë

wind

wailë noun "wind", later form vailë, q.v. (PE17:189)

vëa

wind

vëa (4) noun "wind" (PE17:189)

vëa

noun. wind

vaiwa

wind

vaiwa noun "wind" (WĀ/WAWA/WAIWA)

waiwa

wind

waiwa noun "wind" (WĀ/WAWA/WAIWA)

wind

(actually spelt ) noun "wind" (LT1:266). Cf. wáya-.