A noun for “foam” or “spray”, described at one point as “properly a flying splume or spindrift blown off wavetops” (PM/392).
Possible Etymology: This word was derived from primitive ᴹ✶wingē (Ety/WIG) and had a Sindarin cognate S. gwing (PM/376). As such, the expected Quenya form would be vinge, since initial w became v fairly early in Quenya’s phonetic history, but as an independent word Tolkien fairly consistently wrote this word with an initial w-. Its most notable use is in the name of Earendil’s ship Q. Vingilótë or Wingelótë “Foam Flower”, which in one place Tolkien said “is in intention formed to resemble and ‘explain’ the name of Wade’s ship Guingelot” (PM/371), and this resemblance may explain Tolkien’s frequent use of initial w-. Alternately, it could be a hold over from Early Qenya where the primitive form began with gw- (see below).
Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. ’winge “foam, spindrift, froth, scud” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as a derivative of the root ᴱ√GWIŊI (QL/104). Its stem form was given as {wingi- >>} winge, and in connection to this change Tolkien wrote “winge is [primitive] uiŋē, also = wave”. In the contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa Tolkien had winge with the gloss “froth, foam” and stem form wingi- (PME/104). In a glossary for drafts of the poem Earendel from around 1930 Tolkien had winge “blowing foam, spray” as the basis for ᴱQ. wingild- “foam-maiden” (PE16/100).
In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien had ᴹQ. winge “foam, crest of wave, crest” derived from primitive ᴹ✶wingē (Ety/WIG). In The Etymologies it was the name of tengwa n (EtyAC/WIG), later named vilya. The same was true in notes on The Feanorian Alphabet from the 1930s where Tolkien had ᴹQ. winge “foam” (PE22/22), and also in the version of this document from the 1940s except he wrote wiñge with an ñ (PE22/51); in The Lord of the Rings Appendix E this tengwa’s name was Q. vilya (†wilya) (LotR/1123). This tengwa is in the series for labialized velars and the téma for (ancient) voiced stops, and thus should represent an ancient gw, but that does not seem to be the case for either winge or wilya.
The word winge appeared regularly in Tolkien’s later writings as an independent word, always with an initial w-, even though Tolkien usually wrote Vingilótë in this period. In the Markirya poem, however, the form was winga “foam” (MC/222-223). At one point Tolkien considered making this a loan word from Beorian, but he abandoned this idea (PM/368-371).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would write this word as vingë in keeping with its modern pronunciation.
wingë noun "foam, crest of wave, crest" (WIG); "foam, spindrift" (LT1:273). In the pre-classical Tengwar system presupposed in the Etymologies, wingë was also the name of tengwa #24, which letter Tolkien would later call wilya > vilya instead. - Also winga (so in Markirya).