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Select Elvish Words 10.82-10.83: Sailor, Boat

10.82 Sailor

Q. ciryamo n. “mariner”

A word for a “mariner” in the title Indis i·Ciryamo “The Mariner’s Wife” (UT/8), a combination of cirya “ship” with the agental suffix -mo.

Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. veniel “mariner” as an elaboration of ᴱQ. vene “small boat” (QL/100).

Q. ciryando n. “sailor”

A word for a “sailor” in notes from the late 1950s or early 1960s (PE17/58), a combination of cirya “ship” with the (masculine) agental suffix -ndo.

Q. ciryaquen n. “shipman, sailor”

A word for a “shipman, sailor” in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60, a combination of cirya “ship” with quén “person” (WJ/372). Tolkien specified that “these compounds being old were accented as unitary words and the main stress came on the syllable preceding -quen” (WJ/407), so stressed cirYAquen and (plural) cirYAqueni.

Conceptual Development: The Declension of Nouns of the early 1930s had ᴹQ. veaner “sailor” as a combination of ᴹQ. vea “sea” and ᴹQ. nér “man”, along with an archaic variant ᴹQ. vainar (PE21/17), the latter with some phonetic modifications particular to this document and not seen in Tolkien’s later writings.

Q. ëarendur n. “(professional) mariner”

A word for a “(professional) mariner” as a compound of ëar “sea” and -(n)dur “servant” in a draft letter from 1967 (Let/386). The suffix -(n)dur is often used for those who work on something in a professional capacity; compare ornendur “tree-keep, forester, woodsman” (NM/20). Thus ëarendur refers to people who work on the sea as their job. This word may be contrasted with Eärendil “Lover of the Sea”.

Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. yarendila “like a sailor” and ᴱQ. yarendilyon “sailor” based on ᴱQ. Yarendl, a dialectical variant of ᴱQ. Earendel often used to mean “mariner” (QL/105). In the 1910s, ᴱQ. Earendel was not yet derived from the word for “sea”, so this association must have come from the fame of Earendel as a sailor, not from the meaning of the name itself.

10.83 Boat

Q. luntë n. “boat, ⚠️[ᴱQ.] ship”

The Quenya word for “boat”, which was well-established. It first appeared as ᴱQ. lunte (lunti-) “ship” in the Qenya Lexicon and Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa of the 1910s based the early root ᴱ√LUTU (QL/57). It was used for “boat” in the ᴱQ. Earendel poem from around 1930 (MC/216). ᴹQ. lunte “boat” appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√LUT “float, swim” (Ety/LUT). Q. lunte “boat” also appeared in the second version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa (TQ2) from around 1950 (PE18/99).

Neo-Quenya: See the entry for cirya “ship” for a discussion of the possible semantic distinctions of Elvish words for water vessels.

N. lhunt n. “boat”

The noun N. lhunt “boat” appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√LUT “float, swim” (Ety/LUT).

Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. lunta “a ship” (GL/55), clearly related to ᴱQ. lunte “ship, boat” from the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon under the early root ᴱ√LUT as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (LT1A/Alqaluntë).

Neo-Sindarin: Most Neo-Sindarin writers adapt this word as ᴺS. lunt “boat” as suggested in Hiswelókë’s Sindarin Dictionary (HSD), since the unvoicing of initial l did not occur in Sindarin.

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