 Tolkien himself does not seem to have had a firm idea of the meaning of these words when he created them; his notes on Zirakzigil originally suggested that "zirak" means "silver" and "zigil" means "spike", but he later reversed this and proposed that "zirak" is "spike" and "zigil" is "silver".Of another Khuzdul name "Kibil-nâla" he wrote "the meaning of "nâla" is not known.