Lestanórë place-name "Doriath", gen. Lestanórëo (WJ:369). If this name means the same as the Sindarin name Doriath, "Land of the Fence", #lesta ought to mean "fence" here (but it is obviously not a cognate of the Sindarin term iâth "fence").It may mean "girdle"; compare Sindarin Lest Melian as a name of the Girdle of Melian (WJ:XXX), suggesting*"Girdle-land" as the meaning of Lestanórë.
Quenya
lestanórë
place name. Doriath, *(lit.) Land of the Girdle
Lestanórë
doriath
-o
of goodness
-o (1) genitive ending, as in Altariello, Oromëo, Elenna-nórëo, Rithil-Anamo, Rúmilo, Lestanórëo, neldëo, omentielvo, sindiëo, Valinórëo, veryanwesto, q.v. In words ending in -a, the genitive ending replaces this final vowel, hence atto, Ráno, Vardo, vorondo as the genitive forms of atta, Rána, Varda, voronda (q.v.) Following a noun in -ië, the ending can have the longer form -no, e.g. *máriéno "of goodness" (PE17:59, but contrast sindiëo "of greyness" in PE17:72). Where the word ends in -o already, the genitive is not distinct in form, e.g. ciryamo (q.v.) = "mariner" or "mariners". Pl. -ion and -ron, q.v.; dual -to (but possibly -uo in the case of nouns that have nominative dual forms in -u rather than -t). The Quenya genitive describes source, origin or former ownership rather than current ownership (which is rather covered by the possessive-adjectival case in -va). The ending -o may also take on an ablativic sense, "from", as in Oiolossëo "from (Mount) Oiolossë" (Nam), sio "hence" (VT49:18). In some of Tolkiens earlier material, the genitive ending was -n rather than -o, cf. such a revision as Yénië Valinóren "Annals of Valinor" becoming Yénië Valinórëo (MR:200).
Given as the Quenya name of Doriath in the essay Quendi and Eldar from 1959-60, attested only in its genitive form Lestanórëo in the phrase Elwe, Aran Lestanórëo “Elwe, King of Doriath” (WJ/369). Its final element is certainly nórë “land”. Its initial element lesta resembles S. lest “girdle” in the name S. Lest Melian “Girdle of Melian” and may have a similar meaning. In the earlier poem Fíriel’s Song from the 1930s, the instrumental form lestanen of ᴹQ. lesta was translated “in measure” (LR/72), though it isn’t clear whether the meaning “measure” remained valid when Quendi and Eldar was written.
Conceptual Development: The name ᴱQ. Artanor was given as the equivalent to the precursor of Doriath: G. Dor Athro “Land Beyond” (LT2A/Artanor).