vénë < wénë noun "virginity" (WEN/WENED); in one source vénë also appears with the concrete meaning "virgin" (VT44:10), but this is normally vendë, wendë instead.
Quenya
vénë
noun. *virgin, *virgin; [ᴹQ.] girl
vénë
virginity
vénëa
adjective. *virginal
A hypothetical adjectival form of vénë, implied by the elided form Véne’ in the phrase á Véne’ alcare ar manquenta (VT44/7), since it appears to proceed a noun form alcarë “glory” as suggested by Wynne, Smith, and Hostetter (VT44/10).
vénëa
maidenly, virginal
*vénëa* adj. "maidenly, virginal" (VT44:10; the source has véne' alcarë "virginal glory", the first word possibly representing an adjective vénëa** the final vowel of which has been elided since the next word begins in the same vowel.)
venessë
virginity
venessë noun "virginity" (WEN/WENED)
wénë
virginity
wénë > vénë noun "virginity" (WEN/WENED)
alcarin vendë ar manaquenta
O glorious and blessed Virgin
The fourth line of Ortírielyanna, Tolkien’s translation of the Sub Tuum Praesidium prayer. The first word is the adjective alcarin “glorious” modifying Vendë “Virgin”. It is followed by ar “and” and the second adjective manaquenta “blessed”.
Decomposition: A more literal translation of this phrase would be:
> alcarin Vendë ar manaquenta = “✱glorious Virgin and blessed”
Conceptual Development: Tolkien revised this sentence three times (VT44/7). Unfinished forms appearing before the first version indicate that Tolkien was uncertain whether the word for “virgin” should begin with a v or a w. He settled on Venë in the first version, revised to Venë’ in the second and Vendë in the third. He similarly revised the adjectives “glorious” (alcarinqua >> alcare >> alcarin) and “blessed (incomplete manque... >> manquenta >> manaquenta).
The first and second versions began with what appears to be the imperative particle á, but I think it is more likely to be a stressed form of the vocative a “O”. The second version had Véne’ alcare, which Wynne, Smith and Hostetter suggested might have its adjective and noun functions switched: “✱Virginal glory” instead of “glorious Virgin”, with Véne’ being an elided form of an unattested adjective vénëa (VT44/10). As further evidence of this, the word order switched in the final versions to alcarin Vénde. The form Véne’ was not deleted, so perhaps Tolkien still considered it to be a valid alternative.
|I|II|III| |á Véne|á Véne’|alcarin| |alcarinqua|alcare|Vénde| |ar| |manque...|manquenta|manaquenta|
nettë
girl, daughter
nettë (stem *netti-, given the primitive form listed in VT47:17) noun "girl, daughter" (but also "sister", see below), also used as a play-name of the "fourth finger" or "fourth toe" (VT47:10, VT48:6), in two-hand play also used for the numeral "nine" (nettë is conceived as being related to nertë, q.v.) Nettë is also defined as "sister" or "girl approaching the adult" (VT47:16, VT49:25), "girl/daughter" (VT47:15-16); it may be that "sister" was Tolkien's final decision on the meaning (VT48:4, 22) - The related word nésa seems like a less ambiguous translation of "sister".
A word given by Tolkien as Véne “Virgin” in the Quenya Prayer Ortírielyanna, a translation of Sub Tuum Praesidium (VT44/5-6). Tolkien initially wrote several hesitant forms Ven > Wen > We before writing Véne. In the last phrase he wrote down for the prayer, he revised it to Vénde though the prior phrase with Véne’ was not deleted. As suggested by Wynne, Smith, and Hostetter, Vénde was an alteration from Véne, and its long vowel was probably not intended (VT44/10). Elsewhere Tolkien used wendë for “virgin”, for example in the Quenya translation of the Litany of Loreto prayer (VT44/12); see the entry on vendë for further discussion.
Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies of the 1930s ᴹQ. wéne, véne was given as a word for “girl” or “maiden”, or possibly “virginity” (Ety/WEN).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I think it is useful to be able to distinguish “virgin” and “maiden”. I’d use vénë for “virgin” and [ᴹQ.] venessë for “virginity” (irrespective of gender), but vendë for “maiden, ✱young woman” and vendelë for “maidenhood”.