tow

root. *wool

An unglossed root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with derivatives like ᴹQ. tó “wool” and ᴹQ. toa/N. taw “of wool, woollen” (Ety/TOW); ✶tŏwŏ “wool” also appeared in Common Eldarin: Noun Structure from the early 1950s (PE21/80). In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, the root was instead ᴱ√OWO with derivatives like ᴱQ. oa “wool”, ᴱQ. oara “of wool”, and ᴱQ. ue “fleece” (QL/71). The Gnomish word G. uf⁽⁾ “fine wool, down” was probably related (GL/74), but the word for “wool” in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon was G. tô with Qenya cognate ᴱQ. toa and primitive form ᴱ✶tou̯ (GL/71), hence very similar to the entry in The Etymologies. In Early Noldorin Word-lists from the 1920s Tolkien gave ᴱN. tô “fleece” or “wool” as a derivatives of ᴱ✶togo (PE13/154, 165).

Derivatives

• ✶towo “wool”
• ᴹQ. tó “wool” ✧ Ety/TOW
• ᴹQ. toa “of wool, woollen” ✧ Ety/TOW
• ᴺQ. tuë “fleece”
• N. taw “of wool, woollen” ✧ Ety/TOW
• ᴺS. tô “wool, fleece”