A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s appearing as halatir(no) “fish-watcher, kingsfisher”, a combination of ᴹQ. hala “fish” and an agental form ᴹQ. tirno “watcher” of the root ᴹ√TIR “watch” (Ety/SKAL², TIR). Fish-watcher is the literal translation of the name, and kingfisher is the name of the terrestrial species.
Qenya
hala
noun. (small) fish
halma
noun. skin, fell
halatir(no)
noun. kingsfisher, (lit.) fish-watcher
helma
noun. skin, fell, skin, fell, *hide
A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “skin, fell” derived from the root ᴹ√SKEL (Ety/SKEL). It replaced ᴹQ. halma which was derived from the original form of the root {ᴹ√SKAL >>} ᴹ√SKEL (EtyAC/SKEL). Here “fell” is used in its archaic English sense of “an animal’s skin including its hair”, hence “✱hide”.
Conceptual Development: A word ᴱQ. fara “fur, fell” appeared in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s from primitive ᴱ✶swada, with sw > f as it did in Early Qenya of the 1910s and 20s (PE12/19); in the phonetic developments of later Quenya, sw > hw (PE19/79). Earliest still Tolkien had ᴱQ. vóre “fur” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√VŌRI of the same meaning (QL/102).
A noun for “fish” in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from primitive ᴹ✶skala under the root ᴹ√SKAL “small fish” (Ety/SKAL²). This replaced an earlier derivation from ᴹ✶khala under the deleted entry for the root ᴹ√KHAL “(small) fish” (Ety/KHAL¹).