Way back in 2003, there was a thread here about Tolkien's linguistic puns and playfulness.
http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthr...highlight=puns Many members, far more deeply steeped in languages than I, posted to this thread and brought up a number of thoughtful points and humorous examples. I thought that this subject might be worth revisiting.
Some samples of Tolkien's wordplay are very obvious, see Proudfeet. As some noticed, many relate to Hobbits. Given the nature of our membership, some of the possible puns may be a bit of a reach, seeking significance where there is none.
Let's begin with one that has always seemed obvious to me. Sackville-Baggins. The name is mentioned in the old thread but the association I recognized was overlooked, or perhaps folks were being too polite. In various places in the opening chapters of LoTR, Tolkien contracts Sackville-Baggins to "S.B." Hmmmm. Son of a B***ch.
Celegorm, particularly in the Lays of Beleriand (and its commentaries) is portrayed as being a follower of Curufin, thoroughly dominated by him and perhaps a bit dull. CeleGORM. Per various on-line dictionaries, Gormless is British slang for stupid and slow to understand.
The epilogue for LoTR, which was omitted, was to include mention of a letter from King Elessar to Sam, years after the departure of Frodo and Bilbo from the Grey Havens, requesting that he, Merry, Pippin and various members of their families meet him at the borders of the Shire. Tolkien actually prepared multiple versions of the letter, written in tengwar that Tolkien may have wanted to include in the book. The letter includes a line (omitted from some translations), referring to Sam "who ought to be called Fullwise." As a poster in the prior thread, Selmo, noted, "Samwise" in Old English, might be translated as halfwit.
I know that there are many other examples. Thoughts?