Quote:
Originally Posted by Eönwë
But what about the whole gnome (who later became the Noldor) thing? I'm sure it says something about him meaning "gnome" (from Greek, I believe) in the knowledgeable sense, and he got that from somewhere (Sadly I have no copy on me right now).
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I think that is based on a convenient similarity between the words "gnome" and "ginoskow" (greek "to know"), rather than an actual etymological connection between the words. Perhaps a bit of academic linguistic cleverness on Tolkien's part than actual scholarship. It's more likely that "gnome" comes from "genomos", which means "earth-dweller" - and Tolkien would have obviously known this.