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Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

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Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby Steve » July 25th, 2005, 7:48 pm

I've seen comments on the Internet that Tolkien introduced the word "dwarves" as plural of "dwarf", and before him everyone used "dwarfs".

Is this true? Any ideas?-
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Re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby Steve » July 25th, 2005, 8:15 pm

Found an answer to my own question. A lexicography mailing list I observe just reports that the OED says that
"dwarves" is recorded in use back in 1818. So I guess Tolkien didn't invent it.
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Re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby Adam Linton » July 25th, 2005, 10:32 pm

I don't have my copy right here, but I'm quite sure that Tolkien comments on the spelling of "dwarves," somewhere in his Letters.
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Re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby Leslie » July 26th, 2005, 3:15 am

"What are you laughing at?"
"At myself. My little puny self," said Phillipa.
--Rumer Godden, In This House of Brede
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Re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby Steve » July 26th, 2005, 11:23 am

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Re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby magpie » July 26th, 2005, 7:55 pm

"Love is the will to extend one's self in order to nurture one's own or another's spiritual growth."
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Re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby Steve » July 27th, 2005, 11:06 am

"Elven" the plural of "elf"? I don't think so. It is either "elfs" or "elves".
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Re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby magpie » July 27th, 2005, 4:44 pm

"Love is the will to extend one's self in order to nurture one's own or another's spiritual growth."
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Re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby Erekose » July 27th, 2005, 7:27 pm

I always thought of "Elven" as a descriptive rather than a plural..

The stranger vcame into the light, and although human had a certain elven quality to his features...

The faint music drifying through the trees had an elven lilt to it


for example.
Call yourself a dog???? I've seen better hair on a lavatory brush!!!
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Re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby Stanley Anderson » July 27th, 2005, 8:14 pm

…on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a fair green country under a swift sunrise.
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Re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby Leslie » July 28th, 2005, 3:05 am

"What are you laughing at?"
"At myself. My little puny self," said Phillipa.
--Rumer Godden, In This House of Brede
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Re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby A#minor » August 2nd, 2005, 3:09 am

" He [Tolkien] was also infuriated by his first sight of the proofs, for he found that the printers had changed several of his spellings, altering dwarves to dwarfs, elvish to elfish, further to farther, and ('worst of all' said Tolkien) elvin to elfin.
The printers were reproved; they said in self-defence that they had merely followed the dictionary spellings. "
- J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter\\


Not necesarily that Tolkien invented the spellings, but that he refused to follow the dictionary.
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Re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby Ian » August 2nd, 2005, 3:25 am

i know this is nothing you all are talking about but i just thought i would put this out here, i also thought Tolkien made up the word dwarves too but i guees i'm he did't from reading the post here, but Tokien did have a big afect on the diffeet kinds of SIFI out there now,
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re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby Zies » January 4th, 2006, 2:40 am

"You know not of what lurks in the shadows."-Zies

"Hold your ground,hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan may brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that may take the heart from me. The day may come when the courage of men falls, but today is not this day. The day when the age of men comes crashing down in an hour of wolves and shields, but today is not this day. This day we fight!. For all you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand men of west!"-Aragorn
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re: Did Tolkien invent the word "dwarves"

Postby Marcus_P_Hagen » January 9th, 2006, 11:23 pm

Tolkien commented that "dwarrows" would be the proper plural of "dwarf" if the language had developed as some other plurals had done. However, he was also attempting to avoid the "cute" connotation that "elfin" had taken on, especially since after 1900 the word elf increasingly had connotations of diminutive size. By using an alternative spelling, he at least forced people to notice a difference. What they made of that difference was not as easy to control.

As for the dictionary, Tolkien helped to WRITE "THE" dictionary (the OED), so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. Those other dictionary writers just don't have the "street cred" that Tollers carries :lol:

mph
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