9.92 Become
- Q. ola- v. “to become; [ᴹQ.] to grow (up)”
- An a-verb ola- appeared with the gloss “grow” in the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) of 1948 (PE22/113, 125), replacing ᴹQ. ala- of the same meaning (PE22/113 note #80). In the same document Tolkien coined a distinct basic verb ᴹQ. ol- “become” (PE22/113). Various other inflections throughout the document belonged to one or the other of these verbs. There are glosses indicating that Tolkien was not entirely certain of the distribution of meaning between the two, however. For example, he had ᴹQ. olinwa (not *olanwa) with the sense “fully grown, adult” (PE22/116). Also ola- was given both a weak and strong past tense: olane “grew, were growing” and óle “grew, finished growing, grew up, became” (PE22/116), as opposed to the past tense of ol- which was olle “became” (PE22/103).
In QVS the perfect form of both verbs were the same: (ol)ólie “it has grown up, it has reached its prime, become” (PE22/103, 116), and such similarity of inflected forms may have been the basis for the confusion of meanings. The perfect form olōlie “has become” reappeared in Common Eldarin: Verb Structure of the early 1950s (PE22/133), and again could be from either verb. However, in that document Tolkien had a primitive a-verb ᴹ✶olā- “become, come into being, turn into (another state)”, appearing along with a restored ᴹ✶galā-, which had the more limited sense “grow (of plants)” (PE22/134).
Q. ala- “grow” continued to appear in Tolkien’s latter writings, but its root was usually connected more specifically to the growth of plants (PE17/25, 135, 153). Meanwhile, in notes from around 1959, Tolkien had several words indicating that √OL continued to be the basis of growth-words for people: Q. olmen “growth-year”, Q. olmië “growth” and Q. quantolië “maturity” (NM/84, 119-120).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would use just the a-verb ola- with the sense “grow (up); grow into or become”. It can be used intransitively with people and animals with the sense “grow (up)” as in i Elda olane lintavë “the Elf grew quickly”; for plants, however, the word for “grow” would be ala- (see that entry for discussion). Used transitively, the verb ola- has the sense “grow into or become”, as in i Elda olólie nisse “the Elf has become/grown into a woman”. In this sense it can also apply to inanimate or abstract things: i taure olane ráva yonde “the forest became a lawless region”. Thus ola- refers to the process of growing, maturing and transitioning. If it has a direct object, that object is the thing one grows into or becomes.
Note that this verb is similar in form to óla- “to dream”, but confusion is unlikely since “dream” is an impersonal verb, where the purported subject would be in the dative: óla i Eldan “the Elf dreams, (lit.) dreams [come] to the Elf”, as opposed to i Elda ola lumba “the Elf becomes/grows weary”.
9.93 Need, Necessity
- ᴱQ.. iqis (iqist-) n. “requirement”
- A noun appearing as ᴱQ. iqis (iqist-) “requirement” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√IQI “request, ask for” (QL/43).
Neo-Quenya: I would retain ᴺQ. iquis “requirement” for purposes of Neo-Quenya along with related words, based on the Neo-Root ᴺ√IKWI(S).
- ᴹQ. maure n. “need”
- A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “need” and derived from the root ᴹ√MBAW “compel, force, subject, oppress” (Ety/MBAW).
- Q. sangië n. “necessity, *pressing need or concern”
- A word for “necessity” in the Ortírielyanna prayer from the 1950s, appearing only in its possessed locative plural form sangiessemman “in our necessities” (VT44/5). The editors suggested its original meaning might be “a pressing need or concern”, as a derivative of the root √THAG “press” (VT44/8).
- Q. turindura adj. “done necessarily”
- An adjectival[?] form of the word turindo “purposeful mind, strong will” appearing in Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) from 1969, having the (idiomatic?) meaning “done necessarily” (PE22/165).
- N. baur n. “need”
- A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “need” and derived from the root ᴹ√MBAW “compel, force, subject, oppress” (Ety/MBAW).
9.94 Ought, Must
- N. bui v. “must (impersonal), (lit.) *[it] needs”
- An impersonal verb form appearing as N. bui “I must” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, derived from primitive ᴹ✶mauy- under the root ᴹ√MBAW “compel, force, subject, oppress” (Ety/MBAW; EtyAC/MBAW). The gloss “I must” did not appear in The Etymologies as published in The Lost Road (LR/372), but did appear in the Addenda and Corrigenda to The Etymologies (VT45/33).
Neo-Sindarin: In (Neo) Sindarin phonology, the more likely form is ᴺS. boe, as suggested in Hiswelókë’s Sindarin Dictionary (HSD). The general Neo-Sindarin consensus is that this impersonal verb can be used for “must” with the purported subject in the dative and the required action as a verbal noun: boe annin maded “I must eat, (lit.) [it] needs for me to eat”.
9.943 Fitting, Suitable
- G. tauga v. “suitable, fitting, convenient”
- An adjective appearing as G. tauga in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, based on the verb G. tug- (GL/69) which had among its various meanings had the senses “suit, fit, be convenient” (GL/71).
Neo-Sindarin: The verb tug- “suit” is not longer viable in later Sindarin, so I would replace this adjective with ᴺS. cammui “suitable, fitting, convenient” based on the (Neo-Sindarin) verb ᴺS. camma- “to make fit, suit, accommodate, adapt”.