Primitive elvish
tō/oto
root. back
Element in
- Q. tóquet- “to answer” ✧ PE17/166
Variations
TŌ/OT(O)✧ PE17/166 (TŌ/OT(O)); PE17/187 (TŌ/OT(O))OT✧ PE17/167; VT47/16 (OT)OT(O)✧ PE17/171 (OT(O))TŪ✧ PE17/188 (TŪ)UTU/TŪ✧ PE17/189 (UTU/TŪ)
khan
root. back
Derivatives
- Q. han- “*back as an answer or return by another agent” ✧ PE17/166
Variations
- KHAN ✧ PE17/157; PE17/166
A root in a discussion of prefixes for “back” from around 1959, which Tolkien specified as meaning: “back as an answer, or return by another agent to an action affecting him, as in answering, replying, avenging, requiting, repaying, rewarding”; Tolkien also considered the forms √UTU/TŪ (PE17/166). But Tolkien crossed this all through and seems to have replaced it with √KHAN. Tolkien mentioned the root √OT in a discussion of numbers from the late 1960s, but only to specify that “there was no primitive base OT-” (VT47/16).