11.14 to Grasp, Seize, Take Hold of
- ᴱQ. mahte v. “hold, grip, *grasp; power [over], possession”
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A word appearing as ᴱQ. makte “hold, grip, power, possession” in the Qenya Lexicon under the early root ᴱ√MAHA “grasp” (QL/57). It had a stem form maksi-, the result of the sound change whereby [ti] became [si]. Beside it Tolkien wrote hte, probably indicating an alternate form [ma]hte as suggested by the editors. Elsewhere in the same entry, ᴱQ. makte¹ was glossed “hand”, but that use was marked as archaic (†) and was apparently supplanted by ᴱQ. mā “hand” (which remained the normal Quenya “hand” word for the rest of Tolkien’s life).
Neo-Quenya: Since √MAH survived in Tolkien’s later writings as the basic for hand words, I would retain ᴺQ. mahtë for purposes of Neo-Quenya with the primary sense “hold, grip, *grasp”, metaphorically also “power [over], possession”.
- ᴹQ. mapa- v. “to grasp, seize, ⚠️[ᴱQ.] take; to ravish, seize and carry off forcibly”
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A verb in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “grasp, seize” derived from the root ᴹ√MAP “lay hold of with hand, seize” (Ety/MAP).
Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. map- “seize, take” under the early root ᴱ√MAPA “seize” (QL/59). The verb form mapa “seize” also appeared in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon, but there it was deleted (GL/55). The verb mapa or mapta was translated “ravish, seize and carry off forcibly” in the English-Qenya Dictionary of the 1920s, while map- “take” appeared in other Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s (PE16/133).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya I would use this verb in its 1930s senses “grasp, seize”. For “take” I would use ᴹQ. tuvu-, and for “ravish” the elaborated verb form [ᴱQ.] amapta-.
- Q. raf- v. “[ᴹQ.] to snatch, seize; ⚠️to wave, brandish”
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A verb that first appeared in the Outline of Phonetic Development (OP1) from the 1940s as ᴹQ. raphe “seizes”, with past tense rappe “seized” illustrating the phonetic development of mph to pp (PE19/45). The verb reappeared in the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) from 1948 as a derivative of the root ᴹ√RAPH “snatch”, again to illustrate the past tense of basic verbs whose stems primitively ended in ph (PE22/102).
The verb appeared yet again in the Outline of Phonology (OP2) from the early 1950s illustrating the same sound change, but there Tolkien changed the gloss of the verb to “waves, brandishes” (PE19/89). In green-ink revisions to OP2 from around 1970, Tolkien gave the meaning of the root as √RAPH “seize, grab” with a derived noun arpo “seizer, thief” (PE19/89 and note #101), so it seems the meaning “brandish” was a transient idea.
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would use raf- to mean “snatch, seize” based on the restored 1970 meaning of the root.
- ᴺS. mab- v. “to seize, take away by force, *grasp”
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A “neologism” proposed by David Salo in his Gateway to Sindarin (GS/271), a simple extrapolation of the Old Noldorin verb ON. map- “seize, take away by force” and its Quenya equivalent ᴹQ. mapa- “grasp, seize”, both based on ᴹ√MAP “lay hold of with hand, seize” in The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/MAP). Based on the Old Noldorin glosses I would interpret this verb as having the connotation of forceful seizure, as opposed to ᴺS. nab- for simply taking something with or without force.
- G. manc n. “grip, grasp, hold”
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A noun appearing as G. manc “grip, grasp, hold” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, likely based on the early root ᴱ√maχā (GL/55); compare ᴱ√MAHA “grasp” from the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon (QL/57).
Neo-Sindarin: Since √MAH survives as the root of “hand” words in Tolkien’s later writings, I would retain ᴺS. manc “grip, grasp, hold” for purposes of Neo-Sindarin, though its exact derivation is no longer clear.
- G. manca- v. “to grab, *grip, hold, ⚠️seize”
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A verb appearing as G. manca- “grab, seize” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, a verb form of G. manc “grip, grasp, hold” (GL/55).
Neo-Sindarin: Since I retain ᴺS. manc “grip, grasp, hold” for purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would retain its verb form as well, but adapted as ᴺS. manga- since medial nk > nch > ng. I would also adjust its meaning to “grab, *grip, hold” to better match the noun, and would instead use ᴺS. mab- for “seize”.
- G. nabos n. “seizure, *act of taking”
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A noun appearing as G. nabos “seizure” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, a noun form of G. nab- “take, lay hold of”; compare also G. naptha- “seize” (GL/59). It was followed by an oth in parenthesis, probably indicating an alternate form or [nab]oth.
Neo-Sindarin: Since I retain ᴺS. nab- “take, lay hold of” for purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would adapt this noun as ᴺS. nabas “seizure” = “*act of taking”.