Q. #nostar n. “parent, begetter” (Category: Parent)
A word for “parent” appearing only in its plural form nostari in the phrase a vanimar, vanimálion nostari “O beautiful ones, parents of beautiful children” (LotR/981; Let/448). Its singular form is probably nostar, a combination of the verb nosta- “beget” and the agental suffix -r(o).
Conceptual Development: The Etymologies of the 1930s had masculine and feminine forms ᴹQ. ontaro and ᴹQ. ontare “begetter, parent” under the root ᴹ√ONO “beget” (Ety/ONO), along with a dual form ontaru referring to both parents as a pair (EtyAC/ONO). Feminine variants ontaril or ontari appeared in Quenya prayers from the 1950s (VT43/32; VT44/7). The plural form ontari appeared in Lord of the Rings drafts in the precursor to the phrase mentioned above: ᴹQ. O vanimar vanimalion ontari (SD/64, 73).
Neo-Quenya: It is possible that nostar has a meaning closer to “ancestor” than “parent”, since the couple to which the phrase Q. a vanimar, vanimálion nostari was addressed (Galadriel and Celeborn) had only a single child, and so the phrase only makes sense if it refers to them as ancestors of all of their descendants: their daughter Celebrían and her children Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen. If nostar is used in this way, then perhaps the 1930s words ᴹQ. ontaro and ontare can be used for male and female “parents”, along with an unattested ᴺQ. *ontar as a neutral word for “parent” independent of gender. Hat-tip to Lokyt for this suggestion, though he is unsure who came up with the idea originally.
References ✧ Let/448; LotR/981; PE17/111; SD/73
Related
Inflections
| nostari | plural | “parents” | ✧ Let/448 |
| nostari | plural | ✧ LotR/981; SD/73 | |
| nostari | plural | “begetters” | ✧ PE17/111 |
Elements
| nosta- | “to beget, be begotten” | ✧ SD/73 |
| #-r(o) | “agental suffix” |
Element In
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| √ONO > nostari | [nostarī] > [nostari] | ✧ PE17/111 |
ᴹQ. ontaro n. “begetter, parent” (Category: Parent)
References ✧ Ety/ONO; EtyAC/ONO; PE23/84; SD/73
Glosses
Variations
Related
Changes
Inflections
| ontaru | dual | “parents” | ✧ Ety/ONO; PE23/84 |
| ontarunya | dual 1st-sg-poss | “my parents” | ✧ PE23/84 |
| ontari | plural | ✧ SD/73 |
Elements
| #-ro | “agental suffix” |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ᴹ✶ontā́ro > ontaro | [ontāro] > [ontaro] | ✧ Ety/ONO |
Q. ontari(l) n. “*mother, (lit.) genetrix” (Category: Parent)
References ✧ VT43/32; VT44/7
Glosses
Variations
Related
Element In