ᴱ√LENE¹ root. “long”
A root in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s given as ᴱ√LENE “long”, with the added explanation that it “developed in opp. directions of slow, tedious, trailing, etc. and - stretch, thin, etc.”. Tolkien originally put the word ᴱQ. lenka “slow, left” under this root, but seems to have transferred this word to ᴱ√LEKE, perhaps at the same time he elaborated on the meaning of ᴱ√LENE “long”. Its remaining derivatives include ᴱQ. lenwa “long and thin, straight, narrow” and ᴱQ. lenu- “stretch”.
There are a number of words in the Gnomish Lexicon that seem to be derived from this root, including G. len¹ “wherewith, far, long, away” and G. lenwi “length, distance”, but these were rejected, and Tolkien replaced them with G. lenc “far, distant” derived from ᴱ√leŋe (which was followed by other similar Gnomish derivatives), possibly representing a conceptual shift in this root (GL/53). In any case, there are no clear signs of this root in Tolkien’s later writing, unless perhaps it remanifested as ᴹ√LEN “way, (?road)” from The Etymologies of the 1930s (EtyAC/LEN).
References ✧ GL/53; LT2A/Glend; QL/53
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