ᴹ√ULUG root. “*hideous, deformed”
An unglossed root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with derivatives like ᴹQ. ulundo/N. ulun “monster, deformed and hideous creature” and Ilk. olg/ᴹT. ulga “hideous, horrible” (Ety/ÚLUG). It might be a later iteration of unglossed ᴱ√ULU⁽²⁾ from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like the negative prefix ᴱQ. ulka “bad, wicked, wrong” and the prefix ᴱQ. ul- “mis-”, distinct from but confused with the negative prefix ul- derived from primitive ḷ before labial consonants (QL/97). Tolkien said the root was actually ᴱ√’ULU [ƷULU], but in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon it had derivatives like G. ulc “evil, bad, wicked” (GL/74), rather than **gulc which is the expected result of *ʒulc- in Gnomish.
References ✧ Ety/PHAS, SPÁNAG, ÚLUG, WAR
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