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.
Lindar noun "Singers" (sg. Linda), what the Teleri called themselves (WJ:380, MR:349, UT:253, 286). It seems that Lindar is also interpreted "the Beautiful" (cf. the common adj. linda "fair, beautiful"), but this interpretation apparently belongs primarily to Tolkien's earlier conception, when Lindar was the name of the First Clan, the name of which he revised to Vanyar (similarly meaning "the Fair"). Adj. Lindarin = Telerin (but Tolkien of course held it to be = Vanyarin when the First Clan, the later Vanyar, were still called Lindar before he decided to apply this name to the third clan, the Teleri) (TĀ/TA3)