A word for “pillar” attested as an element in several words like Meneltarma “Pillar of Heaven” (SA/tar) and Tarmasundar “Roots of the Pillar” (UT/166). Christopher Tolkien suggested it was related to tar- “high” (SA/tar), but it could also be related to tar- “stand”.
Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. sūle “pillar, column” under the early root ᴱ√SULU (QL/87) and ᴱQ. taule “pillar” under the early root ᴱ√TAW̯A (QL/90). The word súle “column” also appeared in the Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa (PME/87), while the plural form Tauler appeared in the Official Name List (PE13/104), both documents also from the 1910s.
A set of ridges extending from Meneltarma into each of the five regions (points of the “star”) of Númenor, translated “Roots of the Pillar” (UT/166). This name is a compound of tarma “pillar” and the plural form sundar, a variant sunda of sundo “base”.