√TAK root. “fasten, fix”
This root meant “fix, fasten” for much of Tolkien’s life. The earliest appearance of this root was as ᴱ√TAKA “fix, fasten, stick” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, with derivatives in that document as well as in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon like ᴱQ. taka-/G. tag- “fix, make firm” and ᴱQ. tanka/G. tanc “firm, steady” (QL/88; GL/68). It also had the extended root ᴱ√TAQA “fashion” = TAK + W̯Ǝ with derivative like ᴱQ. tāqa/G. tôb(a) “shape” (QL/89; GL/71). The root ᴱ√tak “stick, [stick] in, fix, firm” was mentioned in the Early Qenya Phonology of the 1920s with numerous etymological variants like ᴱ√stak, ᴱ√taku̯, and ᴱ√tu̯ak (PE14/66).
In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien gave the root ᴹ√TAK “fix, make fast” with derivatives like ᴹQ. tak-/N. taetha- “fasten”, ᴹQ. tanka/N. tanc “firm” and ᴹQ. tankil/N. tachol “pin, brooch” (Ety/TAK). The root also appeared in the first version of the Tengwesta Qenderinwa (TQ1) from the 1930s with the glosses “fix” (PE18/50) and “make” (PE18/54). √TAK reappeared in the second version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa (TQ2) from around 1950 with the gloss “fasten, fix” (PE18/100), and again (unglossed) in the Outline of Phonology (OP2) from the early 1950s as part of the derivation of ✶tankla > Q. tañkal “brooch” (PE19/83). Derivatives of this root appeared regularly in Tolkien’s later writings, making this a particularly stable root in Tolkien’s conception of Elvish.
References ✧ PE18/100; PE19/83
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ᴹ√TAK root. “fix, make fast, make”
References ✧ Ety/PEL, TAK; PE18/50, 54; PE22/111
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ᴱ√TAKA root. “fix, fasten, stick”
References ✧ PE14/65-66; QL/88-89
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