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Originally Posted by wilwarin538
Maybe he didn't mean it to be 'wife' in the sense of matrimony. The word comes from the Old English 'wif' which from what I can tell only meant 'woman', it didn't necessarily have a connection to marriage. Also if you consider the word 'midwife', that does not necessarily have to apply to someone who is married, and actually literally means 'woman who is with'. So even though we would assume 'wives' means marriage, perhaps Tolkien was not using the word in that sense?
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That is quite plausible, but it still "with"? With what? Ent + with (if we assume wife means a woman who is with) a woman who is with an Ent. They are of the Ent species, so are they with themselves or . . . I think I am confusing myself here.
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Originally Posted by Rumil
Possibly for the same reason as the 'Husbandmen' of Gondor?
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Possibly.
But the whole idea just seems so unnecessary. Husbandmen huh?