Q. cöa n. “house; outhouse, shed, hut, booth; building used for a dwelling or other purposes; †body” (Category: House)
The most general Quenya word for “house” or small building derived from √KAW “shelter” (PE17/107; VT47/35; WJ/369). As Tolkien described it in notes from the late 1960s:
From √KAW was made the simple primitive form *kawā > Q koa, applied to any “shelter” (contrived and not natural) temporary or in Aman more often permanent, and applied to what we might call outhouses, huts, sheds, booths (PE17/108).
In another note from this period:
As the simple name of a building used for a dwelling or other purposes Quenya used koa, a derivative of √KAW “shelter” (PE17/165).
Thus coa could be used for a “house” as a dwelling place but also for other kinds of small buildings. For an inhabited dwelling, Q. mar(da) might be more appropriate.
In some places Tolkien use coa to refer (metaphorically) to a body, as in cöacalina “light of the house” referring to a spirit within a body (MR/250), as well as the phrase: Valar ar Maiar fantaner nassentar fanainen ve quenderinwe koar al larmar “Valar and Maiar cloaked their true-being in fanar [veils], like to Elvish bodies [koar = houses] and raiment” (PE17/175).
References ✧ PE17/107-108, 164, 174-175, 177; VT47/35; VT49/23; WJ/369
Glosses
Variations
Related
Inflections
| köarya | 3rd-sg-poss | “the house of him” | ✧ WJ/369 |
| koaryanna | 3rd-sg-poss allative | “his house” | ✧ VT49/23 |
| koaron | genitive plural | “of bodies” | ✧ PE17/174 |
| koainen | instrumental plural | “with bodies” | ✧ PE17/174 |
| koar | plural | “bodies” | ✧ PE17/175; PE17/177 |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| √KAW > koa | [kawa] > [koa] | ✧ PE17/107 |
| ✶kawā > koa | [kawā] > [koa] | ✧ PE17/108 |
| √KAW > koa | [kawa] > [koa] | ✧ PE17/164 |
| ✶kawa > koa | [kawa] > [koa] | ✧ VT47/35 |