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)
Quenya
lindarin
proper name. *of the Lindar
Cognates
- T. Lindárin “Telerin (Language)”
Elements
Word Gloss Linda “Singer” -rin “-ian, racial-adjective, language”
Lindar
singers
An adjective describing the third tribe of Elves, the Linda, as well as a name for their language (WJ/381), more comonly known as Telerin.
Conceptual Development: In linguistic notes from the 1930s, this referred to the language of the first tribe of Elves, consistent with the usage of ᴹQ. Linda in that period (LR/193; 18/26). Later the language of the first tribe was called Vanyarin.