leg (Nan. form of laeg “green”) + golas (“collection of leaves, foliage”) < gwa (“together”) + lass (“leaf”)
Sindarin
legol
adjective. [Ilk.] nimble, active, running free
legolin
place name. Legolin
legolas
masculine name. Legolas
Legolas
noun. green leaves
Legolas
noun. A Sindarin name
Legolas
noun. 'green foliage'
n. 'green foliage'. >> golas(s)
laegolas
masculine name. Green-foliage
The true Sindarin form of Nan. Legolas, a combination of laeg “green” and the lenited form of golas “foliage” (Let/282, PE17/56). In some places this name also appeared as S. Legolas with the diphthong [ae] reduced to [e] in the compound, (P17/84, 159), but the exact mechanism for this is unclear.
Conceptual Development: See Nan. Legolas for the earlier developments of this name.
Legolas
Legolas (name)
The name Legolas is a Silvan dialect form of pure Sindarin Laegolas, which means "Greenleaf". This shows that Greenleaf is not his surname, as is sometimes erroneously believed; nor is it an epithet (like Oakenshield), but a translation of his name. It consists of the Sindarin words laeg, green; and golas, a collection of leaves, foliage (being a prefixed collective form of las(s), "leaf"). The Qenya form (mentioned in the Book of Lost Tales in the context of another character of that name) is Laiqualassë. In later material by Tolkien, the Quenya cognate of Laegolas is said to be Laicolasse.
There might, however, be a certain meaning to his name: laeg is a very rare, archaic word for green, which is normally replaced by calen (cf. Calenhad, mutated Parth Galen and plural Pinnath Gelin) and is otherwise almost only preserved in Laegrim, Laegel(d)rim (Sindarin form of Quenya Laiquendi), the Green Elves of the First Age.
Legolas
Legolas
The name Legolas is a Silvan dialect form of pure Sindarin Laegolas, which means "Greenleaf". At one point he is called "Legolas Greenleaf" by Gandalf, coupling his name and its translation like an epithet.[note 1] Legolas consists of the Sindarin words laeg, a very rare, archaic word for "green" (cf. Laegrim, Laegel(d)rim, the Green Elves), which is normally replaced by calen (cf. Calenhad, Parth Galen and Pinnath Gelin); and golas, a collection of leaves, foliage (being a prefixed collective form of las(s), "leaf"). The Quenya cognate of Laegolas is said to be Laicolasse.
Legolas (elf of Gondolin)
Legolas (elf of Gondolin)
The meaning of Legolas was twofold: it could mean "Greenleaf" from Gnomish laigos ("greenness") and las ("leaf"), as well as "Keen sight", from leg, lêg ("keen, piercing") and last ("look, glance").
laeg
green
_ adj. _green. >> Legolas
calen
green
1) (etymologically "bright") calen (lenited galen), pl. celin (attested in lenited form in the name Pinnath **Gelin, "Green Ridges"). 2) laeg (fresh), no distinct pl. form. (Note: a homophone means ”keen, sharp, acute”.) In the Woodland dialect lêg, whence leg- in the name Legolas** ”Greenleaf” (Lettters:282, 386).
laeg
green
(fresh), no distinct pl. form. (Note: a homophone means ”keen, sharp, acute”.) In the Woodland dialect lêg, whence leg- in the name Legolas ”Greenleaf” (Lettters:282, 386).
calen
adjective. green
calen
green
(galen) _ adj. _green (fresh, vigorous). galen after a sg. noun. Q. kălina (lit. illumined) sunny, light.
laeb
adjective. green
_ adj. _green. A theoretical equivalent to Q. laiqua but that did not exist in Sindarin.
laeg
adjective. green
_ adj. _green (of leaves, herbage). Q. laika.
calen
green
(lenited galen), pl. celin (attested in lenited form in the name Pinnath Gelin, "Green Ridges").
lasgalen
leaf-green
(pl. lesgelin).
One of the seven streams from which Ossiriand got its name (S/123). This name is an extension of legol “running free” (Ety/LEK). Given the river’s location in Ossiriand, this name might be Nandorin instead.
Conceptual Development: In its first appearances in Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s, this river was named Loeglin, revised to Legolin (SM/135). In The Etymologies from the 1930s, the name Ilk. Legolin was designated Ilkorin, with the derivation given above (Ety/LEK). Like many of the river names in Ossiriand, Tolkien did not give a new etymology of the name after he abandoned the Ilkorin language.