This root appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as unglossed ᴱ√SAYAPA (QL/82), also given as ᴱ√SAYAP in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon (GL/66) and saẏap- in The Qenya Phonology (PE12/26), where the ẏ likely represented an ancient palatal spirants [ç] or [ʝ] (PE12/15-16). In this period it had derivatives like ᴱQ. hyapa/G. hab(in) “shoe” and ᴱQ. saipo/G. saib “boot” (QL/41, 82; GL/47, 66), with the shoe-words derived from ᴱ✶χı̯ap- [çap-?] after the loss of the first of the a’s (GL/47). The word hyapa “shoe” reappeared in Early Qenya Word-lists from the 1920s (PE16/144) and the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s (PE21/8).

This root appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as unglossed ᴹ√SKYAP with extended form ᴹ✶skyapat- “shoe” and derivatives ᴹQ. hyapat/N. habad of the same meaning (Ety/SKYAP). This extended form was incorrectly glossed “shore” by Christopher Tolkien in The Etymologies as published in The Lost Road (LR/386), but Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynne corrected this to “shoe” in their Addenda and Corrigenda to the Etymologies (VT46/14).

In red-ink revisions to the Outline of Phonology (OP2) from the 1950s Tolkien decided that the initial combination sky- was not possible (PE19/78 and note #51). For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, this root might be salvaged by assuming its actual form was ᴺ√S(A)YAP, which would also allow the restoration of the 1910s words for “boot”.