A word appearing as ᴱQ. nen “nostril” in several documents from the 1920s (PE14/72; PE15/75; PE16/113). Its plural form nengi made it clear its stem was neng- (PE14/72; PE16/112). Its (Early Qenya) dual nenqi was also “usually used of the nose or both nostrils of one person” (PE15/75).

Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, the word for “nostril” was ᴱQ. sūma under the early root ᴱ√SUHYU “breath, exhale”, where its dual sunwi “nostrils” could also be used as “nose” (QL/86). The word súma “nostril” was mentioned in the contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa along with its dual sunwi (PME/86). Under the same early root, Tolkien had ᴱQ. súne as a more ordinary word for “nose”, specifically a nose of a human (QL/86; PME/86). ᴱQ. súne “nose” survived in the documents from the 1920s (PE14/76; PE15/75; PE16/136), but “nostril” became ᴱQ. nen (neng-) as noted above.

See the entry on ᴹQ. nengwe for a discussion of later “nose” words from the 1930s.

Neo-Quenya: Since ᴹ√NEÑ-WI was the base for the word ᴹQ. nengwe “nose” in The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/NEÑ-WI), ᴺQ. nen (neng-) “nostril” might remain viable for purposes of Neo-Quenya as a derivative of the shorter form of this root: ᴹ√NEÑ. However, in later Quenya grammar its dual would most likely become *nengu, and I would use the dual only for “(pair of) nostrils” and not “nose”.