† = poetic or archaic word (e.g. †él "star" vs. elen, tinwë) or a poetic or archaic meaning of an ordinary word (e.g. russë "corruscation, †swordblade"), * = unattested form or translation, ** = wrong form, ¤ = "reconstructed”/prehistoric form mentioned by Tolkien (and by him usually marked with an asterisk, here reserved for post-Tolkien reconstructions), # = form that is only attested in a compound or as an inflected form (e.g. #ahya-). Brackets indicate forms struck out by Tolkien. Abbreviations: LotR = The Lord of the Rings, Silm = The Silmarillion , MC = The Monsters and the Critics and other Essays, MR = Morgoth's Ring, LR = The Lost Road, Etym = The Etymologies (in LR:347-400), FS = Fíriel's Song (in LR:72), RGEO = The Road Goes Ever On (Second Edition), RS = Return of the Shadow, TI = The Treason of Isengard, WJ = The War of the Jewels, PM = The Peoples of Middle-earth, Letters = The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, LT1 = The Book of Lost Tales 1,LT2 = The Book of Lost Tales 2, Nam = Namárië (in LotR:398), CO = Cirion's Oath and its commentary in UT:305, 317, EO = Elendil's Oath in LotR:1003, 1004; Arct = "Arctic" sentence (in The Father Christmas Letters), Markirya = the Markirya Poem and its commentary in MC:221-223; GL = Gnomish Lexicon (in Parma Eldalamberon #11), QL = Qenya Lexicon (in Parma Eldalamberon #12), PE = Parma Eldalamberon, VT = Vinyar Tengwar (PE and VT being journals publishing Tolkien material edited by C. Gilson, C.F. Hostetter, A.R. Smith, W. Welden and P. Wynne; please refer to the individual journals here referenced to determine which editors are involved in any given case), vb = verb, adj = adjective, interj = interjection, pa.t. = past tense, fut = future tense, perf = perfect tense, freq = frequentative form, inf = infinitive, gen = genitive, pl = plural form, sg = singular form. The spelling used in this wordlist is regularized (c for k except in a few names, x for ks, long vowels marked with accents rather than macrons or circumflexes; the diaeresis is used as in most of LotR). The spelling used in the source is usually indicated; for instance, ("k") following a word indicates that the word is spelt with a k instead of a c in Tolkien's text. When s in a word represents earlier þ (th as in "thing") and it should be spelt with the letter súlë instead of silmë in Tengwar writing (though Tolkien himself sometimes ignored or forgot this), this is indicated by (þ) immediately following the word in question (see for instance asëa aranion). When n in a word represents earlier ñ (ng as in "thing") and should be spelt with the letter noldo rather than númenin Tengwar writing, this is indicated by (ñ) immediately following the word in question (see for instance Noldomar). When the word is actually spelt with ñ instead of n in the source, this is indicated by ("ñ") immediately following the word in question (see for instance nandë #2).
Wordlist last updated August 22, 2013