[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

When he was 'inventing' hobbits didn't Tolkien look at the seven things that would come before it in the dictionary and make a combination of those seven things.

No.

All I remember about the start of The Hobbit is sitting correcting School Certificate papers in the everlasting weariness of that annual task forced on impecunious academics with children. On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' I did not and do not know why.

Letter #163