√KWA root. “complete, full, whole, all, every”
A root, frequently but not universally suffixal, indicating completion or fullness. The first appearance of this root was ᴹ√KWA “something” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, serving as the basis for ᴹQ. il-qa “everything, *all-thing” (EtyAC/KWA). In notes on Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DCR) from the late 1940s, however, Tolkien’s gave the root a new meaning: kwā- “all”, where it was possibly connected to ᴹ√KWAT “fill” (PE23/101).
√KWA reappeared in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60 glossed “completion” (WJ/392) or “full” (WJ/412), with extended form √KWAN and the verbal variant √KWAT “fill”. It appeared again in various notes from the late 1960s on numbering systems, glossed “full, complete, all, every” (VT42/24), “whole, complete, all” (VT47/7), or “complete, full, all, the whole” (VT47/17). In these notes it was connected to Tolkien’s latest word for “ten” from this period: ✶kwayam > Q. quean or S. pae. Since the root √IL was usually used for “all, every” in Tolkien’s later writings, I think it is more accurate to attribute the sense “complete(ness)”, “whole(ness)”, or “full(ness)” to √KWA.
References ✧ VT42/24; VT47/7, 17; WJ/392, 412, 415
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ᴹ√KWA root. “all; something”
References ✧ EtyAC/KWA; PE23/101
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