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<blockquote data-quote="Wicht" data-source="post: 373352" data-attributes="member: 221">Heh <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />He most certainly did not invent the word Hobbit (though I would give him full credit for creating the 'race').&nbsp; Michael Aislabie Denham (died in 1859) included the word in one of his lists of spirits and fairies (republished as the Denham Tracts in 1892 and 95) and though I have not verified this, it may have also been used by Reginald Scot (1535?-1599)in his Discovery of Witchcraft.&nbsp; Its use in the lists show that it was a word in use in the local dialect (of some region anyway) to describe a variation of the brownie.&nbsp; The Hobs (from whence we get both hobbit and hobgoblin) were brownie like creatures, normally good-natured, but a little shy of being seen.&nbsp; The opening paragraphs of The Hobbit in which Tolkien describes the relationship between hobbits and humans shows that he had this tradition in mind and most likely borrowed the word from the lists, thus adopting a rather obscure variation of the brownie and transforming it into a vibrant race.I will agree however that it is perhaps better to say he 'coined' the term halfing rather than he invented the word.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wicht, post: 373352, member: 221"] Heh :) He most certainly did not invent the word Hobbit (though I would give him full credit for creating the 'race'). Michael Aislabie Denham (died in 1859) included the word in one of his lists of spirits and fairies (republished as the [i]Denham Tracts[/i] in 1892 and 95) and though I have not verified this, it may have also been used by Reginald Scot (1535?-1599)in his [i]Discovery of Witchcraft[/i]. Its use in the lists show that it was a word in use in the local dialect (of some region anyway) to describe a variation of the brownie. The Hobs (from whence we get both hobbit and hobgoblin) were brownie like creatures, normally good-natured, but a little shy of being seen. The opening paragraphs of [i]The Hobbit[/i] in which Tolkien describes the relationship between hobbits and humans shows that he had this tradition in mind and most likely borrowed the word from the lists, thus adopting a rather obscure variation of the brownie and transforming it into a vibrant race. I will agree however that it is perhaps better to say he 'coined' the term halfing rather than he invented the word. [/QUOTE]

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