4.74 to Live; Living; Life
- Q. ceula adj. “?alive (of vegetable)”
- A word in Quenya Notes from 1957 (QN) derived from the root √KEWE/KWĒ “live of vegetables” (PE17/159), so perhaps an adjective meaning “*alive (of vegetables)”.
Conceptual Development: The word ᴱQ. lausiva “living (of plants)” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as an adjective form of ᴱQ. laute “living thing, esp. vegetable” (QL/52).
- Q. coirëa adj. “living, ⚠️[ᴱQ.] lively, alive”
- An adjective for “living” appearing in notes from the 1950s as part of the phrase Q. coirëa quenya “living speech” (PM/399).
Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. koirea “alive, lively” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√KOẎO “have life” (QL/48).
- Q. coita- v. “living, ⚠️[ᴱQ.] lively, alive”
- A verb for “to live, be alive, have life” appearing as [ᴹQ.] koita- the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) of 1948 (PE22/103, 125). It had a strong past form koine (PE22/103). This strong past appeared (unglossed) in Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) from 1969 hinting at its ongoing validity (PE22/152), although this same set of notes used Q. cuita- for “live” (PE22/154, 156).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin I prefer to use the root √KOY for “live” and √KUY for “awake”, so I’d use coita- for “to live”, and assign cuita- the meaning: “to waken, rouse”.
- Q. coivië n. “life, [ᴱQ.] liveliness; ⚠️awakening”
- The usual word for “life” in Tolkien’s later writings based on the root √KOY (NM/84, 119; VT49/42), in one place appearing with the variant koive (PE17/68). In another place Tolkien instead used kuivie for “life” in the phrase kuivie-lankasse “on the brink of life”, reflecting Tolkien’s ongoing vacillation between √KOY and √KUY as the root for life.
Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. koivie was “awakening” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/48) as reflected in the name ᴱQ. Koivie-néni “Waters of Awakening” from this period (QL/48), but the word was glossed “liveliness” in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon (GL/29). The noun for “life, being alive” was ᴹQ. kuile in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√KUY “come to life, awake” (Ety/KUY), but was usually coivie in Tolkien’s writings from the 1950s and 60s, as noted above.
Neo-Quenya: I prefer √KOY as the root for “life” for purposes of Neo-Eldarin, so I’d use coivie as the noun “life, liveliness”, and use cuivië for “awakening” as seen in the later form of the name Q. Cuiviénen “Water of Awakening” (S/48).
- ᴹQ. (ek)koiru- v. “to come to life”
- A verb appearing as {ekkoitu >>} (ek)koiru “come to life” in the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) from 1948 (PE22/112), a u-verb based on the root ᴹ√KOY “live” with the (optional) prefix ᴹQ. et-, where tk became kk as it did in cases where it did not undergo metathesis to kt > ht.
- ᴱQ. koiva adj. “lively, ⚠️living; awake”
- A word appearing as ᴱQ. koiva “awake” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√KOẎO “ground” (QL/48), but in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon it was glossed “lively, living” (GL/29).
Neo-Quenya: I’d retain this word as ᴺQ. coiva “lively” for purposes of Neo-Quenya, since I use √KOY as the root of words having to do with life. For “awake” I’d use ᴺQ. cuiva, and for “living” I’d use Q. coirëa.
- ᴹQ. kuina adj. “alive”
- An adjective appearing as ᴹQ. kuina “alive” in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from the root ᴹ√KUY “come to life, awake” (Ety/KUY).
Conceptual Development: A similar adjective ᴱQ. koina “living, alive” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s based on the early root ᴱ√KOẎO “have life” (QL/48).
Neo-Quenya: Tolkien vacillated between the two roots √KOY and √KUY for “life”; I prefer to use √KOY for purposes of Neo-Eldarin, so I’d use ᴺQ. coina for “alive”. For “living” I’d using the word Q. coirëa from the 1950s (PM/399).
- ᴱQ. laule n. “life, mode of life”
- A noun appearing as {laume >>} ᴱQ. lauste “life, mode of life” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√LAWA “*life (of plants)” (QL/52). Tolkien also gave laule = laume, so presumably this also equivalent to lauste. The word laume “life” also appeared (undeleted) in the contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa (PME/52).
Neo-Quenya: Since √LAW had a similar meaning in Tolkien’s later writings, I’d retain ᴺQ. laulë “mode of life” for purposes of Neo-Quenya, along with other words derived from it.
- ᴱQ. laulesta n. “life, mode of life”
- A noun appearing as {laumesta >>} ᴱQ. laulesta “livelihood” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, an elaboration of ᴱQ. laule “mode of life” (QL/52).
Neo-Quenya: Since I retain ᴺQ. laulë, I’d also retain ᴺQ. laulesta for purposes of Neo-Quenya.
- ᴱQ. laulesta- v. “to lead a life, gain a living”
- A verb appearing as {laumeta- or laumesta- >>} ᴱQ. lausta- or laulesta- “lead a life, gain a living” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, an elaboration of ᴱQ. laule “mode of life” (QL/52).
Neo-Quenya: Since I retain ᴺQ. laulë, I’d also retain ᴺQ. laulesta- for purposes of Neo-Quenya.
- Q. vehtë n. “[a span of] life; habitat, haunt”
- A noun for “life” appearing in Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 derived from primitive {✶we’te [weʒte] >>} ✶weg-tē “activity, occupation” (PE17/189). Tolkien said that vehte meant:
not Life in general or as a principle, but (a period of) individual activity, as in vehtequentale “biography”. It was used therefore sometimes almost like nóre “land” — of the place where a person, people etc. lived and had their business, i.e. habitat, haunt. So Beleriand might be described as an Eldavehte, a habitation, haunt or place occupied by Eldar.
Thus vehte refers to a span of life or activity (temporal or physical), and in this sense was the basis for words like vehtequentalë “biography = *life-history” as well as various place names for regions where people lived.
4.742 Immortal
- ᴹQ. alfírima adj. “immortal”
- An adjective for “immortal” in the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) from 1948 appearing only in its plural form alphírimar, using the adjective plural formation of QVS (PE22/124). Its more typical Quenya adjective plural form would be alfírime. It also appeared in a noun plural form Alphírimor “Immortals”. It is a combination of ᴹQ. fírima “mortal” with the negative prefix ᴹQ. al-.
Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies of the 1930s the word for “immortal” was ᴹQ. ilfirin, a combination of ᴹQ. il- “not” and firin “dead (by natural cause)” (Ety/PHIR).