12.73 Straight
- ᴹQ. téra adj. “straight, right, *correct”
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The Etymologies of the 1930s has ᴹQ. téra “straight, right” as a cognate to N. {tîr >>} taer, derived from {ᴹ✶tēra >>} ᴹ✶teñrā based on {ᴹ√TEƷ >>} ᴹ√TEÑ “line, direction” (Ety/TEƷ, TEÑ). Versions of the Lament of Atalante from the 1930s had téra “straight” as in malle téra “straight road” (LR/47, 056), but the version from the 1940s had téna “straight” (SD/310).
Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. tea or taina “straight” under the early root ᴱ√TEHE “pull ?”, where the question mark was Tolkien’s (QL/90). Early Noldorin word-lists of the 1920s had ᴱQ. tína as a cognate to ᴱN. tain “straight”, both derived from ᴱ✶tegnā (PE13/153, 165).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would use téra “straight” as the best known form. I would also use téra to mean “right” = “*correct” (not the direction “right”). For example, in response to the correct answer of a question you might say ta téra (ná) “that (is) straight” = “that is right/correct”. Saying á hilya i téra tie “follow the straight path” may also imply “follow the right/correct path”, depending on context.
- N. taer adj. “straight”
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The adjective taer “straight” appeared in the entry for the root ᴹ√TEÑ “line, direction” as a derivative of ᴹ✶teñrā (Ety/TEÑ). In The Etymologies as published in The Lost Road, Christopher Tolkien gave its form as tær (LR/392), but Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynne corrected this tær, taer in their Addenda and Corrigenda to the Etymologies (VT46/18). The form taer may have replaced N. tîr “straight, right” from the earlier version of the entry {ᴹ√TEƷ} > ᴹ√TEÑ, where Tolkien derived N. tîr from tēra < ᴹ✶teñrā (Ety/TEƷ; EtcAC/TEƷ).
Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. tîr whose archaic meaning was “†straight”, but whose later meaning was “upright, honest” or (as a noun) “esteem, regard, honour” possibly due to a blending with other roots (GL/71). Early Noldorin word-lists had ᴱN. tain “straight” derived from ᴱ✶tegnā (PE13/153, 165).
Neo-Sindarin: The best Neo-Sindarin forms for these words are unclear. 1930s N. taer seems to have an (abnormal?) modification of the ancient vowel to ǣ so that ǣ > ai and then ai > ae. The expected Noldorin development of primitive ᴹ✶teñrā would be the vanishing of ñ (> ʒ) with lengthening the vowel to ē and then ē > ī, producing N. tîr as in the earlier version of the root’s entry.
Another complication is that in later writings, Tolkien changed the root to √TEG “line” (PE19/97), repurposing √TEÑ to mean “indicate, point to” (WJ/394; PE22/149). The expected result of primitive *tegrā is teira > tair; compare S. cail < ✶keglē. However taer might still be the Sindarin result if there was an abnormal collapse of the ancient diphthong ai to similar-sounding ę̄ (the 1950s analog of 1930s ǣ), so that [ę̄] became [ai] and then ae. This usage clashes with S. taer “lofty” from the 1950s (PE17/186), but I think the two adjectives could coexist: taer meaning “lofty” when applied to vertical things like mountains but “straight” when applied to (mostly) horizontal things like roads and lines.
I also think it is worth retaining N. tîr < *teñra < √TEÑ with an original meaning of “that which is indicated” (but no longer meaning “straight”), so that its modern Sindarin sense could be “right, *correct”. I would further assume tîr has its Gnomish meanings “upright, honest” when applied to persons, so that it means “esteem, regard, honour” when used as a noun.
If the conflict between taer “lofty” and taer “straight” bothers you too much, you might instead use tîr for both “straight” and “right, *correct” (analogous to ᴹQ. téra), though it is less clear where the sense “straight” comes from in Tolkien’s later paradigm of roots.