Quote:
Originally Posted by Elmo
Well I'm guessing what my name means. El means star. Ulmo means 'he who pours' so my means 'star pourer'? 'Star water'?
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Tolkien noted that (in Quenya) -mo
'... often appeared in names or titles, sometimes with an agental significance': Ulmo was interpreted as 'the Pourer' < *UL 'pour out'
So here Quenya -mo does have agental significance 'pour out' > Pourer (one who does 'the meaning of the stem'), though not in all cases, noting Tolkien's 'sometimes'. If El- means 'star' in
Elmo my guess would be something like 'Star-person'.
On the other hand, in
The Shibboleth of Feanor (1968) Tolkien looks at
Elwe, Olwe and the stems
el-, ol-, and seems to cast doubt on an intended rendering of
Elwe meaning 'Star-person':
'There is nothing known to connect Elwe more closely with the stars than all the other Eldar; and the name seems invented as a pair with Olwe, for which no 'meaning' was suggested'