I noted that Cecil pluralizes “dwarf” as “dwarves” in hislatest column … “dwarves” was a Tolkien neologism . (Although by now, that usage may have become common enough to be considered standard, at least pertaining to those mythical gnomelike guys as opposed to, say, dwarf stars.)
Powers
December 7, 2012, 9:20pm
2
cjepson:
I noted that Cecil pluralizes “dwarf” as “dwarves” in hislatest column … “dwarves” was a Tolkien neologism . (Although by now, that usage may have become common enough to be considered standard, at least pertaining to those mythical gnomelike guys as opposed to, say, dwarf stars.)
I believe “dwarfs” is still correct if one is speaking of human beings in the real world, but “Dwarves” is standard when speaking of fantasy races, for parallelism with “Elves”.
The plural per JRRT should really be “dwarrows”.
From JRRT his own self in Appendix F of ROTK:
"It may be observed that in this book as in The Hobbit the form dwarves is used, although the dictionaries tell us that the plural of dwarf is dwarfs. It should be dwarrows (or dwerrows), if singular and plural had each gone its own way down the years, as have man and men, or goose and geese. But we no longer speak of a dwarf as often as we do of a man, or even of a goose, and memories have not been fresh enough among Men to keep hold of a special plural for a race now abandoned to folk-tales, where at least a shadow of truth is preserved, or at last to nonsense-stories in which they have become mere figures of fun. But in the Third Age something of their old character and power is still glimpsed, if already a little dimmed: these are the descendants of the Naugrim of the Elder Days, in whose hearts still burns the ancient fire of Aule the Smith, and the embers smoulder of their long grudge against the Elves; in in whose hands still lives the skill in works of stone that none have surpassed.
It is to mark this that I have ventured to use the form dwarves, and so remove them a little, perhaps, from the sillier tales of these latter days. Dwarrows would have been better; but I have used that form only in the name Dwarrowdelf, to represent the name of Moria in the Common Speech: Phurunargian_ For that meant ‘Dwarf-delving’, and yet was already a word of antique form. But Moria is an Elvish name, and given without love…"