Q. lómë n. “night, dimness, twilight, dusk, darkness” (Category: Night)
The usual Quenya word for “night”, sometimes also used to mean “darkness” or (more accurately) “dimness”, since it does not describe the complete absense of light. It is derived from primitive ✶dōmē based on the root √DOM having to do with darkness or dimness (PE17/152; PE22/153; Ety/DOMO). The Elves do not have a negative perception of “night” (PE17/152; SD/306), no doubt due to the many years they spent living under the stars without sun and moon.
Conceptual Development: This word dates back to the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s where ᴱQ. lóme (lómi-) was glossed “dusk, gloom, darkness” under the early root ᴱ√LOMO (QL/55). It meant “shadow, cloud” in a glossary to one of the drafts of the Oilima Markirya poem (PE16/75), and its plural lómi was translated “clouds” in the last iteration of the poem from around 1930 (MC/214).
It was “gloom” in the Declension of Nouns (DN) from the early 1930s (PE21/32). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, ᴹQ. lóme (lómi-) was glossed “night, night-time, shades of night” and was derived from a blend of root ᴹ√DOM “faint, dim” and ᴹ√DOƷ “night” (Ety/DOƷ, DOM). The latter was also the basis for ᴹQ. ló “night, a night”, though this word (and lóme “nighttime”) initially appeared under a (rejected) root ᴹ√LOƷ (EtyAC/LOƷ).
In notes from the 1940s Tolkien said lōme “has no evil connotations; it is a word of peace and beauty and has none of the associations of fear or groping that, say, ‘dark’ has for us [in English]” (SD/302). In Tolkien’s later writings it was usually translated “night”, with various other similar meanings as described above.
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would mainly use lóme to mean “night” as the period in which the sun was absent, the opposite of aurë. It could also describe any exterior situation with minimal natural light, such as “dimness, dusk, twilight”, but not pure darkness which would be huinë. For the Elves, lóme has no negative connotations as they are perfectly comfortable in such periods of night and even favor them.
References ✧ Let/308; PE17/81, 87, 120, 152; PE22/153; RC/385, 727; S/190; SA/dú, lómë; WJ/166
Glosses
Variations
Related
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ✶dōmē > lómë | [dōmē] > [lōmē] > [lōme] | ✧ PE17/152 |
| √DOM > lóme | [dōmē] > [lōmē] > [lōme] | ✧ PE22/153 |
| ✶dōmē > lómë | [dōmē] > [lōmē] > [lōme] | ✧ SA/dú |
ᴹQ. lóme (lómi-) n. “night, night-time, shades of night, gloom” (Category: Night)
References ✧ Ety/DOƷ, DOMO, LUM; EtyAC/LOƷ; LR/41; PE21/32; SD/302, 306, 415; SM/241
Glosses
Variations
Related
Inflections
| Lómen | genitive | ✧ EtyAC/LOƷ | |
| Lómen | genitive | “of Night” | ✧ SM/241 |
| lómi- | stem | “night” | ✧ SD/415 |
Elements
| ló² | “night, a night” | ✧ EtyAC/LOƷ (ló) |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Derivatives
Phonetic Developments
| ᴹ√DOƷ/DÔ > lóme | [dōmi] > [dōme] > [lōme] | ✧ Ety/DOƷ |
| ᴹ✶dōmi- > lóme | [dōmi] > [dōme] > [lōme] | ✧ Ety/DOMO |
| ᴹ√DOƷ > lóme | [doɣmē] > [dōmē] > [lōmē] > [lōme] | ✧ Ety/LUM |
| ᴹ✶slōmē > lōme | [slōmē] > [l̥ōmē] > [lōmē] > [lōme] | ✧ PE21/32 |
| ᴹ✶dōmi > lōme | [dōmi] > [dōme] > [lōme] | ✧ SD/302 |
| ᴹ√LOM > lóme | [lōme] | ✧ SD/415 |
ᴱQ. lóme (lómi-) n. “dusk, gloom, darkness; shadow, cloud” (Category: Night)
References ✧ LT1A/Gwerlum, Hisilómë; MC/214, 221; PE16/62, 72, 74-75, 77; PME/55; QL/55
Glosses
Variations
Changes
Inflections
| lómi | accusative plural | “clouds” | ✧ PE16/75 |
| loomi | plural | ✧ PE16/72; PE16/77 | |
| lómi | plural | “clouds” | ✧ MC/214; PE16/62 |
| lómi | plural | “shadows” | ✧ MC/221 |
| lómi | plural | ✧ PE16/74 | |
| lōmi- | stem | ✧ QL/55 |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ᴱ√LOMO > Lōme | [lōmi] > [lōme] | ✧ QL/55 |