14.16 Early (adv)
- ᴹQ. arinya adj. “morning, early”
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A word in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “morning, early”, adjectival form of ᴹQ. arin “morning” (Ety/AR¹; EtyAC/AR¹).
- G. hai adj. and adv. “in good time, punctual(ly), early”
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The word G. hai “in good time, punctually, early” appeared in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, with an adjectival variant G. hair “timely, punctual, in good time” which in turn had its own adverbial variant haidra of the same meaning (GL/47). The derivation of these words is unclear.
Neo-Sindarin: There aren’t any Sindarin words for “early” in Tolkien’s later writings, so I’d retain ᴺS. hai as neologism for “in good time, early, punctual(ly)” function as both adjective and adverb. I would assume it is related to S. hí “now”, derived from primitive *khiyā. Compare ᴹ✶miniı̯a > [N.] minei “single, unique” [ᴺS. minai].
14.17 Late (adv)
- ᴱQ. telwa adj. “late, ⚠️last”
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An adjective or adverb appearing as ᴱQ. telwa “last (late)” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s based on the early root ᴱ√TEL+U “to finish, end, close, complete” (QL/91).
Neo-Quenya: The root √TEL had basically the same meaning in Tolkien’s writings in the 1950s and 60s, so I would retained this adjective/adverb for purposes of Neo-Quenya. However, I would limit ᴺQ. telwa to its temporal sense “late”. For example, Helge Fauskanger used telwa only to mean “late” in his Neo-Quenya New Testament (NQNT). For “last” I would use other words, such as telda “last, final” from 1959-60.
- G. fîr adj. and adv. “late”
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A word appearing as G. fîr “late” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, with a comparative form G. {fidron >>} fiont(ha) “later” (GL/35). It seems to have replaced G. fir “less” with superlative G. fiont “least”. Marks near fîr “late” may mean it was rejected in turn.
Neo-Sindarin: Since we have no other words meaning “late” in Sindarin or its conceptual precursors, I would retain ᴺS. fîr “late”, perhaps related to S. fir- “fade” and originally referring to fading light late in the day. This neologism conflicts with the plural form Fîr “Mortals”, but they are unlikely to be confused in practice.