7.45 Lamp
- Q. calar n. “lamp”
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A word for “lamp” in notes from the late 1960s derived from √kalar- (VT47/13). This word is less well-known than Q. calma “lamp” (LotR/1121).
- Q. calma n. “lamp, (device for shining) light, ⚠️[ᴱQ.] candle; (day)light”
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A noun for “lamp” appearing in The Lord of the Rings Appendix E (LotR/1121) as the name for tengwa #3 (a). In notes from the 1960s, Tolkien clarified that it was “a lamp or other device for shining light” (PE17/180).
Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, ᴱQ. kalma was glossed “(day)light” under the early root ᴱ√KALA “shine golden” (QL/44) but was simply “light” in the contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa (PME/44). It was glossed “light” again in the Early Qenya Grammar and English-Qenya Dictionary from the 1920s (PE14/43, 73; PE15/74). In the Earendel poem written around 1930 it was glossed “light” as in “light of the sun” (MC/216), but in the Oilima Markirya poem it was glossed “candle” (MC/214).
The word ᴹQ. kalma appeared unglossed in the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s (PE21/52), but was glossed “a light, lamp” in The Etymologies from around 1937 under the root ᴹ√KAL “shine” (Ety/KAL), which is the first time it was used for “lamp”. It was glossed “light” in notes on The Feanorian Alphabet and Qenya Spelling from the 1930s and 40s (PE22/22, 51, 61), but became “lamp” in the discussion of tengwar in The Lord of the Rings itself, as noted above.
Meanwhile, the earliest “lamp” word was ᴱQ. kalumet (kalumett-) from the Qenya Lexicon and Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa of the 1910s (QL/44; PME/44), and this word mentioned again in the Early Noldorin Dictionary of the 1920s as a cognate to ᴱN. glavaith “a blaze, burning, blazing light” (PE13/162). ᴹQ. kalumet “lamp” appeared a final time in the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s, but there it was deleted (PE21/37 note #134).
In summary, it seems that in the 1910s and 20s kalma was “light” while kalumet was “lamp”, but sometime in the 1930s kalumet was abandoned and kalma became “lamp, a [device for] light”, while in after the 1930s the ordinary word for “light” became cala (RGEO/62; Ety/KAL) which in the 1910s had instead been used for “daytime” as a time period (QL/44).
- Q. calmatan n. “lampwright”
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A word for “lampwright”, a combination of calma “lamp” and tamo (-tan) “builder”, equivalent to S. calardan (PE17/96).
- S. calar n. “(portable) lamp”
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A noun for a “(portable) lamp” in the word calardan “lampwright” (PE17/96; RC/523), which appear as a plural in the name Rath Celerdain “Lampwrights’ Street” (LotR/768).
Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. dant “lamp”, but this word was deleted (GL/29).
- S. calardan n. “lampwright”
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A word for a “lampwright” (PE17/96; RC/523), appearing in its plural form in the name Rath Celerdain “Lampwrights’ Street” (LotR/768).
Conceptual Development: In Lord of the Rings drafts of the 1940s it appeared in the mutated plural forms chalardain and chelerdain (WR/287, 388)
7.46 Candle
- Q. líco (lícu-) n. “wax”
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A word for “wax” in notes associated with the versions of the Markirya poem from the 1960s (MC/223). It might be based on the root √LIK “glide, slide, slip, drip” from a different set of 1960s notes (NM/283).
Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. neite as cognate to G. nith “wax”, both derived from primitive ᴱ✶nēgittĕ (GL/60).
- Q. lícuma n. “taper, candle”
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A word for “taper, candle” in notes associated with the versions of the Markirya poem from the 1960s, an elaboration of líco “wax” (MC/223).
Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon and Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa of the 1910s had ᴱQ. katinka “candle” based on the early root ᴱ√KATYA (QL/45).