Linguistic puns, riddles, and jokes in LotR, etc.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by akhtene

Just found this in a dictionary.
A road closed at one end is called French fashion cul-de-sac which means the bottom of the sack. Or Bag-End , doesn't it?

Here's a phrase I love very much (Sam remembers the Gaffer's saying) "Whenever you open your big mouth you put your foot in it" , that is speak without thinking first. Just try visualising it [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

cul also means fesse, as in buttocks, which would mean a kind of 'bum's rush' if Tolkien were given to making jokes at French expense.

Originally Posted by Ibrîniðilpathânezel

So perhaps one might look at these names as meaning Belladonna had a rather poisonous personality, and Mirabella was either prickly or lazy, inclined to bestir herself only rather late in the day. As Tolkien says that Hobbits were fond of flower names for girls, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he occasionally had such things in mind

Many of these jokes and puns we are finding seem to be expended on hobbit and Shire names. Is this linguistic funny bone also handed to elven, Rohirrim or Gondorian names? Or is this one of Tolkien's ways of suggesting that the hobbits are indeed the smallest?