I raise you the "Grand elf"
Gandalf is the name of a dwarf in the Norse Poetic Edda (from which Tolkien borrowed a bunch of names, mostly dwarves). He supposed – probably accurately – that it meant "wand-elf", but he originally gave the name to Thorin.
Oh nice! That's interesting to know!
I always just assumed it was some sort of archaic spelling.
That's exactly what it is.
Probably meant to stress that the animals were rare enough in middle earth that they didn't have a proper common word for them. Not an expert though.
Yes, but on Dutch that's pronounced exactly like elephant:
"Olifant", which I just learned is also the name of a certain kind of instrument.
It's a hunting horn that happens to be carved from an elephant tusk so it's all tied together.
It got the name because in the story of Roland he had a hunting horn like that apparently named Oliphant that he blew to summon aid from the rest of Charlemagne's forces after he got his army killed by not blowing it sooner, because he was a fucking idiot.
That or that was just the word for that kind of horn and the texts just make it seem like that was a specific name, it's hard to tell sometimes.
