5.13 to Drink
- ᴱQ. socto- n. “to give to drink, drench”
- A verb appearing as ᴱQ. {sokta-} >> sokto- “give to drink, drench” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√SOKO with derivatives having to do with “drink” (QL/85).
Neo-Quenya: Since √SOK reappears in Tolkien’s later writing (PE18/94), I think this word can be adapted as ᴺQ. sohta- for purposes of Neo-Quenya.
- ᴹQ. suk- v. “to drink [rapidly], *gulp, quaff”
- A verb appearing in The Etymologies of the 1930s as sukin “I drink” under the root ᴹ√SUK “drink” (Ety/SUK).
Conceptual Development: The verb was ᴱQ. soko- “drink” in the Qenya Lexicon and the Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√SOKO (QL/85; PME/85). The verb sok “drink” also appeared in Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s (PE16/141), but in Qenya Verb Forms of the same period the verb was ᴱQ. soq- “drink” (PE14/28). The form ᴹQ. suk- in The Etymologies of the 1930s reflects a change in the root form √SOK > √SUK. The forms √SOK and √SUK “drain, drink” appeared as variants of each other in both version of the Tengwesta Qenderinwa from the 1930s (TQ1: PE18/45) and 1950s (TQ1: PE18/94), and √SOK “gulp, quaff, drink” appeared in notes from around 1960 (VT39/11).
Neo-Quenya: In the 1950s and 60s, the more common verb for “drink” was Q. yul-. I think the verb suc- might be retained for purposes of Neo-Quenya with the stronger senses “drink [rapidly], *gulp, quaff”, based on the root meaning circa 1960.
- ᴹQ. suhto n. “draught, *a single act of drinking”
- A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “draught” derived from the root ᴹ√SUK “drink” (Ety/SUK).
Neo-Quenya: This noun may have been replaced by Q. yulda “something drunk, a drink, a draught” (LotR/377; PE17/63), but I think suhto might be retained in reference to “a single act of drinking” vs. yulda for “a drink, the thing drunk”.
- Q. yul- v. “to drink”
- A verb for “to drink” from the 1950s and 60s (PE17/63) based on the root √YUL of the same meaning (PE22/155; WJ/416).
- Q. yulda¹ n. “drink, draught, thing drunk; ⚠️cup”
- A noun for “draught” appearing in the Namárië poem from The Lord of the Rings (LotR/377). In various commentaries on the poem Tolkien clarified that the meaning of the word was “something drunk, a drink, a draught” (PE17/63), “a thing drunk, draught” (PE17/135), or “a draught, the amount drunk” (PE17/68). In one place Tolkien said it could mean “a cup” as in “a cup of miruvore” (PE17/64), though most likely this refer to the contents of the cup rather than the cup itself.
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would use this word primarily in the sense of “a drink, a draught” = “the thing or amount drunk”, as opposed to [ᴹQ.] suhto for “a draught” = “a single act of drinking” (Ety/SUK).
- Q. yulda² adj. “drunk”
- An adjective meaning “drunk” (as in a drunk thing) from the ancient passive participle *yulna (PE17/68), where [ln] became [ld].
- Q. yúlima adj. “drinkable”
- A verbal adjective meaning “drinkable”, a combination of Q. yul- “drink” and Q. -ima “able” (PE22/155).
- Q. yulmë n. “drinking, carousal”
- An abstract noun formation meaning “drinking, carousal” appearing in the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60 and derived from the root √JULU [YUL] (WJ/416).
- Q. yuluitë (yuluiti-) adj. “drinking (as a habit), *aquatic”
- A verbal adjective meaning “drinking (as a habit)”, a combination of Q. yul- “drink” and Q. -itë “generally or naturally doing” (PE22/155). It was used for the class of animals Q. yuluiti cuimar “fish, etc.”, so it likely had the connotation “*aquatic”.
- N. luithia- v. “to quench”
- A verb for “to quench” appearing only as an element in uluithiad “unquenchable” in Lord of the Rings drafts of the 1940s (SD/62). Patrick Wynne suggested it might be related to Q. luita- “flood, drench” and the root √LUY (VT48/31).
- N. sautha- v. “to drain”
- A verb appearing as N. sautha- “drain” in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√SUK “drink” (Ety/SUK), probably from primitive *sukta- where (a) the u became o before a, (b) the combination okt vocalized to outh and then (c) the ou became au.
Conceptual Development: The verb G. soctha- “give to drink, quench” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s seems to be similarly derived from sokta- based on the early root ᴱ√SOKO “drink” (GL/68), but Gnomish did not have the same kind of vocalizations as later Noldorin and Sindarin.
Neo-Sindarin: There is evidence that in Sindarin of the 1950s and 60s, the vocalization of okt was oith rather than outh so that the result would instead be soitha- > *soetha-. However, I prefer to assume the existence of dialectical variations in the Sindarin of the First Age with differing vocalizations, and thus would retain the form sautha- myself.
- N. sog- v. “to drink”
- A verb appearing as infinitive sogo “drink” in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√SUK of the same meaning (Ety/SUK), with short u becoming o as usual.
Conceptual Development: The same verb G. sog- “drink” appeared the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/68), but in Tolkien’s earlier writings the root was ᴱ√SOKO (QL/85). The verb ᴱN. sog- also seems to appear in sample sentences in the Early Noldorin Grammar of the 1920s such as ᴱN. manthil sóg odog “*having eaten he drinks a lot” (PE13/128), but these sentences were not translated.
Neo-Sindarin: In Tolkien’s later writing, the usual Quenya word for “drink” was Q. yul- from the root √YUL, so some Neo-Sindarin writers prefer to coin a neologism ᴺS. ýl- “drink” based on this root. However, I prefer to retain sog- for “drink” in Neo-Sindarin, since the roots √SOK and √SUK also appeared in Tolkien’s later writings, including documents that also had √YUL (PE18/94; VT39/11).
- N. sûth n. “draught”
- A noun appearing as N. sûth “draught” in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from the root ᴹ√SUK “drink”, likely from primitive *suktō given its Quenya cognate ᴹQ. suhto (Ety/SUK). It is thus likely that the combination ukt vocalized to ūth, as it did for similar words in The Etymologies such as N. lhûtha- “enchant” vs. ᴹQ. luhta- under the root ᴹ√LUK (Ety/LUK).
Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s instead had G. suith “a drink, a draught” (GL/68) from the early root ᴱ√SOKO (QL/85), representing a different vocalization: okt vocalizing to oith (HPG/§2.6) and then oi becoming ui (PE15/13). It seems the phonetic developments in The Etymologies of that late 1930s was different, but in notes on the The Feanorian Alphabet from this same period, Tolkien said [ui] was the result of vocalized u + χ (PE22/40), and indeed that seems to be the phonetic developments in later Sindarin as well, given words like S. nuitha- from primitive ✶nuktā- (WJ/413).
Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I’d use ᴺS. suith for “draught, a drink”, a form I saw first suggested by David Salo in his book Gateway to Sindarin (GS/321).