Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!

Early Primitive Elvish

velu

root. unroll

This root appeared as ᴱ√VELU “unroll” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. velunte “sail” and ᴱQ. velupantie “revelation” (QL/100). It had several Gnomish derivatives of similar meaning (GL/22), all beginning with “b” since initial voiced spirants became stops in Gnomish.

Neo-Eldarin: I think it is worth positing a Neo-Root ᴺ√BELU to salvage these early words. However, in The Etymologies from the 1930s, Tolkien glossed the Quenya verb ᴹQ. panta- as “to unfurl, spread out, open”, so it is possible the sense “unfurl” moved to the root ᴹ√PAT (unglossed), though most of this root’s other derivatives are closer in sense to “open” (Ety/PAT).

Derivatives

  • Eq. velu- “to unfurl”
  • Eq. velunte “sail” ✧ QL/100
  • G. belu- “to unroll, unfurl (intransitively), belly (of sails), swell”

Element in

Early Primitive Elvish [QL/100] Group: Eldamo. Published by