linda

fair, beautiful

linda adj. "fair, beautiful" (of sound) (SLIN, LIND; VT45:27), "soft, gentle, light" (PE16:96), "beautiful, sweet, melodious of sound" (PE17:150); for Linda as a noun, see Lindar.

linda

proper name. Singer

The name that the Teleri used to refer to themselves, usually appearing in the plural form Lindar and glossed “The Singers” (SI/Teleri, UT/286). They were so called because in legend, they sang before they could speak with words (WJ/382). The name was derived from the root √LIN “sing” (SA/lin, WJ/382).

Conceptual Development: In Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s, this name was used for the first tribe, with the gloss “The Fair” (LR/168). It usually appeared as a collective noun, but sometimes appeared in the singular (PE22/51). In The Etymologies, it is given as ᴹQ. linda “fair, beautiful (of sound)” used as a name (Ety/LIND). In later writings, the name of the first tribe became the Vanyar, and Tolkien repurposed this name as another name of the third tribe with a slightly different derivation and meaning.

Cognates

• Nan. Lindē “Lindar” ✧ NM/347
• S. Glinnel “*Singer-elf” ✧ WJI/Glinnel; WJ/378
• T. Linda “Teler” ✧ WJ/382; WJI/Lindar

Derivations

• √LIN “sing, make a musical sound, sing, make a musical sound, [ᴱ√] gentle” ✧ SA/lin²
• ✶lindā “*sweet sounding” ✧ WJ/378; WJ/380; WJ/382

Element in

• Q. Lindalambë “Language of the Lindar”
• Q. Lindarin “*of the Lindar”

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
√lin- > Lindar	[lindar]	✧ SA/lin²
✶Lindāi > Lindar	[lindar]	✧ WJ/378
✶lindā > Lindar	[lindā] > [linda]	✧ WJ/380
✶Lindā > Lindar	[lindā] > [linda]	✧ WJ/382

linda

adjective. beautiful (of sound), sweet, melodious; soft, gentle, light, beautiful (of sound), sweet, melodious; soft, gentle, light, [ᴱQ.] kind; [ᴹQ.] fair

Derivations

• ✶lindā “*sweet sounding”

Element in

• Q. lindalë “music”
• Q. norolinda “*tripping lightly” ✧ PE16/096

Variations

• Linda ✧ PE17/150

Lindar

singers

Lindar noun "Singers" (sg. Linda), what the Teleri called themselves (WJ:380, MR:349, UT:253, 286). It seems that Lindar is also interpreted "the Beautiful" (cf. the common adj. linda "fair, beautiful"), but this interpretation apparently belongs primarily to Tolkien's earlier conception, when Lindar was the name of the First Clan, the name of which he revised to Vanyar (similarly meaning "the Fair"). Adj. Lindarin = Telerin (but Tolkien of course held it to be = Vanyarin when the First Clan, the later Vanyar, were still called Lindar before he decided to apply this name to the third clan, the Teleri) (TĀ/TA3)

lindo

singer, singing bird

lindo noun "singer, singing bird" (LIN2)

lindë-

sing

lindë- vb. ?"sing" (LT1:258; in LotR-style Quenya lir- or #linda-)

lin-

sing

[lin- (2) vb. "sing" (GLIN, struck out)]

alima

fair, good

alima adj. "fair, good" (also alya) (PE17:146)

Lindórië

she that arises in beauty

Lindórië fem. name, perhaps *"She that arises in beauty" (compare Melkor "He that arises in Might") (Silm). Cf. linda.

-ima

fair

-ima adjectival suffix. Sometimes it is used to derive simple adjectives, like vanima "fair" or calima "bright"; it can also take on the meaning "-able" (PE17:68), as in mátima "edible" (mat- "eat"), nótima "countable" (not- "count") and (with a negative prefix) úquétima "unspeakable" (from quet- "speak"). Note that the stem-vowel is normally lengthened in the derivatives where -ima means "-able", though this fails to occur in cenima "visible" (q.v., but contrast hraicénima, q.v.) and also before a consonant cluster as in úfantima "not concealable" (PE17:176). "X-ima" may mean "apt to X" (when the ending is added to an intransitive verbal stem), as in Fírimar "mortals", literally "those apt to die" (WJ:387). The adj. úfantima "not concealable" (PE17:176) also appears as úfantuma (PE17:180), indicating the existence of a variant ending -uma (possibly used to derive adjectives with a "bad" meaning; compare the ending *-unqua next to -inqua, q.v.)

moica

gentle, soft

moica ("k")adj. "gentle, soft" (GL:58)

nyello

singer

nyello noun "singer" (NYEL). Compare the final element of Falanyel, #Solonyel, q.v

alya

fair, good

alya (1) adj. "fair, good" (PE17:146), "prosperous, rich, abundant, blessed" (GALA). In a deleted entry in Etym, the glosses provided were "rich, blessed"; another deleted entry defined alya as "rich, prosperous, blessed". (GALA, [ÁLAM], VT42:32, 45:5, 14)

vanya

fair

vanya (1) adj. "fair" (FS), "beautiful" (BAN), a word referring to beauty that is "due to lack of fault, or blemish" (PE17:150), hence Arda Vanya as an alternative to Arda Alahasta for "Arda Unmarred" (ibid., compare MR:254). Nominal pl. Vanyar "the Fair", the first clan of the Eldar; the original meaning of this stem was "pale, light-coloured, not brown or dark" (WJ:382, 383, stem given as WAN), "properly = white complexion and blonde hair" (PE17:154, stem given as GWAN); stems BAN vs. WAN discussed, see PE17:150.

vanë

fair

vanë adj. "fair" (LT1:272; in Tolkien's later Quenya rather vanya)

vanë

adjective. fair, fair, [ᴱQ.] lovely

Derivations

• √BAN “beauty (due to lack of fault or blemish); fair, beautiful” ✧ PE17/056

Element in

• Q. úvanë(a) “without beauty”
• Q. vanessë “beauty” ✧ PE17/056
• Q. vanië “beauty” ✧ PE17/056
• Q. vanima “beautiful, fair, beautiful, fair, *handsome; [ᴱQ.] proper, right, as it should be, fair” ✧ PE17/056

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
√BAN > vane	[bani] > [bane] > [βane] > [vane]	✧ PE17/056

Variations

• vane ✧ PE17/056