tup

root. cover over, hide

This root had to do with covering things for much of Tolkien’s life. The first appearance of the root was unglossed ᴱ√TUPU in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. tumpo “shed, barn” and ᴱQ. tupu- “roof, put lid on, put hat on, cover” (QL/95). Tolkien said this root was “much as TELE”, which in this document was glossed “cover in” (QL/90). The root ᴱ√TUPU also had derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. tub- “cover” and G. tump “a shed” (GL/71).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s the root ᴹ√TUP was given as a variant of ᴹ√TOP “cover, roof” with derivatives like ᴹQ. tupse/N. taus “thatch” (Ety/TUP; EtyAC/TOP). In Tolkien’s later writings its most notable derivative was Q. untup- “cover (over)” as in Q. ar hísië __untúpa__ Calaciryo míri oialë “and mist covers the jewels of Calacirya forever” (PE17/73; LotR/377). The root √TUP “cover over” itself was mentioned a couple times in Tolkien’s later writings (PE17/73). In one place of those places it was given as √TUI “cover over, hide”, but since in that note it was the basis for primitive ✶Utupnu, this √TUI is clearly a malformed ✱√TUP (MR/69).

tuy

root. sprout, bud

Tolkien used this root and ones like it for sprouting things for much of his life. Its earliest appearance was unglossed ᴱ√TUẎU in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, where the Ẏ probably represents an ancient palatal spirant [ʝ] or [ç], with derivatives like ᴱQ. tuile “spring, (lit.) a budding” and ᴱQ. tuita- “to bud, burst, burgeon, grow” (QL/96). It also had derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. tuil “spring” and G. tuitha- “sprout, spring, gush” (GL/71). In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien gave the root as ᴹ√TUY “sprout, spring” with derivatives like ᴹQ. tuia-/N. tuia- “sprout, spring” and ᴹQ. tuile “spring-time” (Ety/TUY). The root reappeared several times in Tolkien’s later writings with glosses like “sprout” (PE19/54) and “sprout, bud” (VT39/7).