†vëo noun "man" (WEG; etymologically connected to vëa "manly, vigorous"; the more neutral word for "man" is nér. According to VT46:21, Tolkien indicated that vëo is an archaic or poetic word.) Tolkien at a later point defined the word as "living creature" (PE17:189). Cf. variant wëo, q.v.
Quenya
vëo
noun. living creature, living creature, *living being, [ᴹQ.] man
Cognates
- S. gwê “living creature, living creature, *living being; [N.] man, warrior” ✧ PE17/189
Derivations
Element in
- ᴺQ. mitsavëo “micro-organism”
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ✶wegō(n) > weo > vëo [wegō] > [weɣō] > [βeɣo] > [βeo] > [veo] ✧ PE17/189
vëo
man
wëo
living creature
wëo noun "living creature", variant of vëo, q.v. (PE17:189)
lér
man
**lér noun "man" (NI1; hypothetical Q form of PQ dēr; the form actually used in Quenya was nér)
nér
man
nér (1) (ner-, as in pl. neri) noun "man" (adult male elf, mortal, or of other speaking race) (MR:213, VT49:17, DER, NDER, NI1, VT45:9; see also WJ:393)
nér
noun. man
A noun for a “living creature” in Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957, a derivative of the primitive form ✶wegō(n) from the root √WEG “live, be active” (PE17/183). It is not entirely clear from context, but I think this word may apply to any living being, both plants and animals.
Conceptual Development: In earlier conceptions, the root √WEG and its precursors were mostly associated with masculine things, and thus the precursors to this word meant “man” rather than living creature: ᴱQ. wie cognate to G. gweg “man, male of the Elda” from the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/44), archaic ᴹQ. †wē “man, warrior” from the Declension of Nouns of the early 1930s (PE21/1, 41) and archaic ᴹQ. †veo “man” from The Etymologies of around 1937 (Ety/WEG; EtyAC/WEG).