Over on Elfling, in message 34172
(<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elfling/message/34172>), David Salo writes:

> The aorist/present distinction, however, is not between events that are states
> (real or expected), and those that are sporadic or occasional events; it's
> between events which have (or are perceived or represented to have) no
> duration, that is to take place at imagined instants of time, and those which
> have (or are perceived or represented to have) some duration over time.

David doesn't state on what he bases this definition of the aorist, but if he
means it to describe how Tolkien used the aorist tense in Quenya, it seems
to fall short of the mark. The aorist in Quenya is certainly not limited to
instantaneous action, as numerous examples show: e.g., _i karir quettar
ómatainen_ 'those who form (aorist) words with voices' (XI:391), _lá karita
i hamil mára alasaila (ná)_ 'not to do (aorist infinitive) what you judge
(aorist) good (would be) unwise' (VT42:33), etc.

It seems evident to me, from looking at all of the now numerous examples
of Tolkien's use of aorist verbs, that by "aorist" Tolkien simply means what
that word literally means: Greek _aoristos_ `indefinite' < _a-_ 'not' +
_horizein_ 'define, limit'. That is, the aorist as Tolkien uses it is simply
indefinite as to time; it is, in a sense, tenseless, unspecified and unlimited
as to past, present, or future time. Hence the general, habitual, and gnomic
nature of the attested exemplars, including those just given.

It is true that the aorist in Ancient Greek particularly (and in many Indo-
European languages) is most often used as a simple past; but it is not
_exclusively_ used as a simple past. The primary denotation of the aorist is
simply "indefinite", and that seems to be precisely how Tolkien uses it.

Carl