ungwë noun "spider's web", also name of tengwa #8 (Appendix E), or, in the pre-classical Tengwar system presupposed in the Etymologies, tengwa #20 which letter Tolkien would later call nwalmë (VT46:20). The word as such was defined as "gloom" in the Etymologies(UÑG), while in early "Qenya" it meant "spider" ("especially Ungwë the Gloomweaver" = Ungoliant) (LT1:271)
Quenya
ungwë
noun. spider’s web, spider’s web; [ᴱQ.] spider; [ᴹQ.] gloom
Derivations
- √UÑG “spider”
Variations
- ungwe ✧ LotR/1122; PE17/104
ungwë
spider's web
unqualë
agony, death
unqualë ("q")noun "agony, death" (KWAL, VT45:36). See anqualë. In the pre-classical Tengwar system presupposed in the Etymologies, unqualë was the name of letter #8 (VT45:18), which tengwa Tolkien would later call ungwë instead changing its Quenya value from nqu to ngw.
anqualë
agony, death
anqualë noun "agony, death" (form Tolkien seems to have intended as a replacement for unqualë of similar meaning, VT45:24, 36)
liantë
spider
liantë (1) noun "spider" (SLIG), in earlier sources ascribed other meanings:(2)liantë "tendril" (LT1:271) and (3) "vine" (PE14:55, cf. liantassë elsewhere)
lumbë
gloom, shadow
lumbë noun "gloom, shadow" (LUM)
qualmë
agony, death
qualmë ("q")noun "agony, death" (KWAL, LT1:264)
umaqualë
agony, death
[?umaqualë] ("q"), possibly a synonym of anqualë/unqualë, hence noun "agony, death" (VT45:24)
yaru
gloom, blight
yaru noun "gloom, blight" (GL:37)
A word for “spider’s web” appearing in The Lord of the Rings Appendix E, the name of tengwa #8 [x] (LotR/1122).
Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, ᴱQ. ungwe was a word for “spider” under the early root ᴱ√GUŊU (QL/98). However, in The Etymologies of the 1930s, ᴹQ. ungwe was glossed “gloom” under the root ᴹ√UÑG (Ety/UÑG) in keeping with the 1930s translation of the name ᴹQ. Ungoliante = “Gloomweaver” (LR/230) where the second element ᴹQ. liante meant “spider” (Ety/SLIG). In notes on The Feanorian Alphabet from the 1940s ungwe was also glossed “(spider) gloom” (PE22/51). In Tolkien’s later writings he said √ungu- was again the basis for “spider words” (PE22/160), which explains the new translation in The Lord of the Rings appendices.