Q. coimen (coimend-) n. “life-year” (Category: Age)
A measure of the age of an adult Elf, translated “life-year”, equal in time to an Elvish long-year yén which is 144 sun-years (NM/84, 120). The word coimen seems to be derived from a combination of √KOY “life” and √MEN “go, proceed”, so perhaps originally meaning “*life-process”. It may be distinguished from an olmen “growth-year” which measures the age of an Elf during childhood prior to maturity (quantolië). These measurements are complicated by the fact that (a) the age of maturity is different for Elvish men and woman and (b) Tolkien kept changing his mind about how quickly Elves aged during childhood. See olmen for further discussion.
References ✧ NM/84-85, 120
Glosses
Variations
Inflections
| Coimendi | plural | “life-years” | ✧ NM/120 |
| coimendi | plural | ✧ NM/85 |
Elements
| √KOY | “*live, have life” |
| √MEN | “go, move, proceed (in any direction); make for, go towards; have as object, (in)tend; direction, object, point moved toward; region” |