Elven Words for the Ocean, Tides, and Rain
I’ll have the second part of this collection, words for rivers, lakes and other water sources out later and another with more words for the shore and other marine related things!
More in the linguistic resources and word of the day (wotd) tags! Let me know if there are any topics you would like to see covered!
Water in all its forms is one of the most commonly occurring motifs in Tolkien. The song that brought about creation is most tangible in the water and all known elven languages have many, many water related words including many wonderfully specific ones!
In time for @tolkienseaweek 🌊🌊🌊🌊
Eär or Eären is the Quenya word for the ocean or sea. Gaear is the Sindarin word and Gaiar is the Telerin one. The root of all of these words are gayar which means sea but also dread, awe or being astounded. This is consistent with many canonical descriptions of the power of Ulmo.
Haloisi (Quenya) means the sea in storm ⛈️ and derives from the root hala meaning leap. Quië meant the opposite, a calm or quiet sea.
Duinen and dannen are the later Sindarin words for hide tide and lowtide respectively. Luimë and Nanwë are the respective Quenya words. Duinen and luimë both derive from duy meaning flood and dannen and nanwë derive from ndanmē meaning retreat or ebb
Luiwë is also the Telerin word for high tide. Dammë means low tide.
Ross is the Sindarin word for rain and rost is the adjective form meaning rainy. They derive from the root ros meaning spindrift that is also the root of rossë, the Quenya word for light rain or continuous spray.
Ulo is the Quenya word or heavy rain. It comes from the root ul, meaning to pour.
Gwing is the more commonly used Sindarin word for foam or spindrift and faloth means a large, foamy wave. Falma was the Quenya word for a created or foamy wave. Both derive from the root phal meaning foam or splash
Meord is a word meaning fine rain in Ossiriandic, the language of the green elves of Ossiriand. It is one of only nineteen known words in this language. It derives the word mizdi meaning fine rain or dew