maidh

adjective. pale, fallow, fawn [light yellowish tan colour]

firiel

feminine name. Mortal Maid

A “later” name of Lúthien in The Etymologies from the 1930s meaning “Mortal Maid”, marked N[oldorin] and a compound of feir “mortal” with the feminine suffix -iel (Ety/PHIR). In Tolkien’s unfinished story “The Lost Road” from the 1930s, the name Fíriel was given to a Númenórean maiden (LR/62). Later Q. Fíriel was given as a Quenya name.

eledhwen

feminine name. Elf-maid

firiel

noun. mortal maid

iell

noun. girl, maid

Stated to be an alteration of sell , remodelled after ion "son" (OS *jondo). It was "a change assisted by the loss of s in compounds and patronymics", hence the ending -iel in several feminine words

sell

noun. girl, maid (child)

sell Archaic

noun. girl, maid

wendë

maid

wendë noun "maid" (GWEN), wendë > vendë "maiden" (WEN/WENED, VT45:16, VT47:17). Sana wendë "that maiden" (PE16:96 cf. 90). According to VT47:17, this word for "maiden" is "applied to all stages up to the fully adult (until marriage)".Early "Qenya" also had wendi "maid, girl" (LT1:271); this may look like a plural form in Tolkiens later Quenya. On the other hand, VT48:18 lists a word wendi "young or small woman, girl". It is unclear whether this is Quenya or a Common Eldarin form, but probably the former: PE17:191 displays the word for "maiden" as wendē, so the Quenya stem form is probably *wende- rather than wendi*-, the stem-form that would result from Common Eldarin wendi). In his Quenya translation of the Sub Tuum Praesidium, Tolkien used Wendë/Vendë to translate "virgin" with reference to the Virgin Mary. Here the plural genitive Wenderon appears in the phrase Wendë mi Wenderon "Virgin of Virgins"; we might have expected Wendion instead (VT44:18).If the pl. form of wendë is wender rather than wendi, as the gen.pl. wenderon suggests, this may be to avoid confusion with the sg. wendi** "girl".

wen

maid, girl

wen noun "maid, girl" (*wend-), in early "Qenya" also wendi (Tolkien's later Quenya form wendë occurs in MC:215 and in Etym, stems GWEN, WEN/WENED). (LT1:271, 273)

wendi

maid, girl

wendi noun "maid, girl" (LT1:271), "young or small woman, girl" (VT48:18); see wendë

vingil

noun. *nymph, mermaid, foam-maid, [ᴹQ.] nymph, mermaid, foam-maid

wingil Archaic

noun. *nymph, mermaid, foam-maid

núrë

noun. maid servant, servant-woman

haudh-en-elleth

place name. Mound of the Elf-maid

Grave of Finduilas translated “Mound of the Elf-maid” (S/216), a combination of haudh “mound”, en “of the” and Elleth “Elf-maid”.

Conceptual Development: In Silmarillion revisions from the 1950s-60s, this name appeared as Haudh-en-Ellas (WJ/92). This variant also appeared in notes from around 1966-7 (PE17/97).

sell

noun. *daughter, daughter; [N.] †girl, maid

The most common Sindarin word for “daughter” (SD/129; VT50/18).

Conceptual Development: In the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, the word for “daughter” was G. suil with shorter form sui (GL/36, 68) probably derived from the early root ᴱ√SUẈU (QL/87) and replacing rejected {thuai, thuil} (GL/36, 73). In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien gave (archaic) N. †sell “girl, maid” derived from the root ᴹ√SEL-D (Ety/SEL-D). Tolkien said sell was replaced by N. iell “daughter”:

> with i from iondo son [YŌ]; a change assisted by the loss of s in cpds. and patronymics: cf. Tinnúviel < ✱tindōmiselde (Ety/SEL-D).

Thus in Noldorin, sell became iell under the influence of N. ionn “son”, and assisted by the fact that intervocalic *s* became *h* and then vanished when -sell was used as a suffix in compounds.

It seems Tolkien abandoned this 1930s paradigm, however, since he used sell for “daughter” in a couple later documents, namely the King’s Letter (SD/129) and the Túrin Wrapper (VT50/5).

Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would use sell for “daughter” but suffixal -iel for “daughter of” under the influence of -ion “son of”, a scenario similar to that of The Etymologies. I would also allow iell as a less commmon variant for “daughter”, derived from the suffix.

Eledhwen

noun. elf maid (Morwen)

eledh (“elf”) + gwend (“woman, maiden”, [Etym. ELED-]) [Etym. WEN-]: since it shows no -d even in the archaic spelling, it probably contains derivative of WEN-, not WENED- stem and the last element is Ilk. gwen “girl”; in Grey Annals the translation is given “Elfsheen”.

elleth

noun. Elf-maid

Fíriel

noun. mortal maid

Fíriel

noun. a mortal maid

fair (“mortal”) + iell (“daughter, child” [Etym. SEL-D] traditional ending for women’s names)

eledhes

noun. *Elf-maid

ellas

noun. *Elf-maid

elles

noun. *Elf-maid

elleth

noun. elf-maid

iell

maid

1. iell (-iel) (girl, daughter), pl. ill, 2) sell (i hell) (daughter, girl), pl. sill (i sill), coll. pl. sellath** **

iell

maid

(-iel) (girl, daughter), pl. ill

sell

maid

(i hell) (daughter, girl), pl. sill (i sill), coll. pl. *sellath*** **

bâd

beaten track

(pathway) (i vâd, construct bad), pl. baid (i maid)

bâd

pathway

(i vâd, construct bad) (beaten track), pl. baid (i maid).

mîth

noun. baby girl, maid-child, little girl

An Adûnaic noun for “little or baby girl” (SD/427, 437), fully declined on SD/437 as an example of a Weak I noun. It is also given as an example of a feminized noun form on SD/427.