A name suffix in Sindarin, largely used in names adapted from Quenya, such as Manwe or Bronwe, the latter an adaptation of Q. Voronwë. However, the true cognate of the Quenya name suffix -wë is -u, as in S. Elu the later form of Elwë. This -u is not an active name suffix in Sindarin, though, and survives only in a few ancient names like Elu.
Conceptual Development: In the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s this suffix was G. -weg and was used broadly in names such as G. Manweg (GL/56) as well as an agental suffix in words like G. finweg “craftsman” (GL/35). This early version seems to be the suffixal form of G. gweg “man” (GL/44). The suffix was often paired with its feminine equivalent G. -win such as G. gothweg “warrior” vs. G. gothwin “amazon” (GL/42), or G. faronweg vs. G. faronwin for a male and female “foreigner” (GL/34).
In The Etymologies of the 1930s this suffix became N. -we derived from primitive ᴹ✶-wego under the root ᴹ√WEG “(manly) vigour”, which in Noldorin was distinct in origin from ᴹQ. -we which was (mostly) based on an ancient abstract suffix ᴹ✶-wē (Ety/WEG). Pure Quenya names like Finwe retained their form when used in Noldorin, but there were also some native Noldorin names with this suffix such as N. Bronwe < ON. Bronwega.
Tolkien revisited this suffix in various notes from the late 1950s and gave it a similar origin, with the caveat that all of the “native” names from the stories had become adaptations from Quenya. As Tolkien described it in Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957:
> In Sindarin adoption of Quenya names (as Voronwe > Bronweg) -we was sometimes used to represent -we, which historically had become w or u (as in Elu = Elwe). But this S -we is of distinct origin, √WEG-, live, be active. Hence ✱wego(n), living creature: Q weo, veo, S gwê. Cf. ✱weg-tē, activity, occupation (PE17/189).
In an earlier but rejected version of this note, Tolkien instead gave the root form as √WEK with Sindarin suffix -weg, perhaps a brief flirtation with restoring the Gnomish form of the suffix (PE17/190).
_masc. suff. _It corresponds to fem. -iel. Q. -we.