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submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 46 points 2 months ago

Had to look this up cause that's cool - Tolkein worked in etymology of words in the range of Waggle-Warlock, so arguably not much work with the front of the alphabet.

Also - dwarfopodes.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

He should have referred them to the definition of “Wanker” then.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

dwari.

your move.

[-] [email protected] 41 points 2 months ago

"Dwarfs" is for humans with dwarfism, "dwarves" is for the fantasy race.

[-] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago

That might be the trend now, but the common plural before Tolkien was "dwarfs" for the mythical creature.

[-] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago

Yes, but thanks to him, it now isn't.

[-] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago

I can only speak for myself, but if I were a person with dwarfism, I think I would insist on "dwarves". Lean really hard into the fantasy angle.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

What about celestial bodies? Is it red dwarfs or red dwarves?

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Red dwarfs.

[-] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago
[-] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Yeah I recall reading that he later said he wished he had gone with dwarrow since it's an older root word.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

He could have just written a story about how a wizard changed the word.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Discworld explanation for anything unexplainable: 'Wizard did it"

[-] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago
[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Ooh, crimes against the hobbit are even nore heinous though!

[-] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Tolkien worked on part of the dictionary. I think he was assigned the letter W, so dwarf would not have been in his range. But he would not have defined the plural as dwarves anyway. He deliberately chose it differently for his fantasy creatures. Great flex, I wonder what the immediate reaction of the publisher was to that quote.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

In the preface of my edition of the Hobbit, there is an indirect reference made to this where Christopher Tolkien mentioned how the correct spelling is dwarfs and not dwarves.

Nice to know where it came from!

this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2025
227 points (97.5% liked)

Lord Of The Rings Memes

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