√WOR root. “express, cause to exude (by pressure)”
The first appearance of this root was as unglossed {ᴱ√WORI >>} ᴱ√GWORI in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. ’wōre and G. gur “sweet” (QL/104); the latter appeared as gûri in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon (GL/43). These early words were elements in ᴱQ. miruvóre and its Gnomish equivalent G. gurmir (QL/61; GL/43).
The root √WOR reappeared in Words, Phrases and Passages in the Lord of the Rings from the late 1950s, with the gloss “express, cause to exude (by pressure)”, again as the basis for the second element of Q. miruvórë: ✶wōri “juice (esp. of fruit)” (PE17/37-38). But Tolkien went on to say “This is false etymology. High Elvish. There was not in fact any word wor- in Elvish, Quenya or Sindarin.” He then concocted a new etymology for miruvórë as a loan word from Valarin mirubhōze (PE17/38). This Valarin origin of the word was repeated in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60 (WJ/399). In notes from 1967 Tolkien admitted that the actual inspiration of the word was Germanic među “mead” + wōþi “sweet” (PE17/65).
References ✧ PE17/37, 191
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Derivatives