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.
lindë noun "air, tune, singing, song" (SA:gond, (LIN2, [GLIN]); lindelorendor "music-dream-land"; see laurelindórenan lindelorendor... _(LotR2:III ch. 4, cf. Letters:308). _Also compare lindi- in lindimaitar, q.v. (but the other compounds here cited do not give a lindë a stem-form lindi-).