Walrus

[flumpet]

Is it true that the word walrus was first defined for the dictionary by JR Tolkein?

[Tatty Rollox]

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that

[shaneystar2]

JR Tolkein did work for the OED.
Tolkien was interested in the etymologies of words. He took up a post at Leeds University and is said to to have given a lengthy lecture on the etymology of the world walrus.
He had trouble with words beginning with W apparently.
The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester is an excellent book which tells how the OED was compilated and mentions Tolkien..

[shaneystar2]

Typo ..sorry ! Word ..walrus ..not world !
Slithy toves at work !

[rojash]

"compilated"?

[dzug]

Well I have a dictionary dated 1913 in which the word walrus appears and I'm sure it's far older than that.
Tolkien would have been a classics student at the time so I'm sure he didn't first define it. He may well have done some work on its origins for the OED later as shaneystar2 says.

[jenstar]

It's true he wrote a definition for Walrus for the OED (as he worked for them for a while, doing the "W"s), though not necessarily the original one.

[CareBear_se]

According to "The Oxford Library of Words and Phrases" - Volume III Word origins: The word is probably of Dutch origin - Walrus "Whale Horse"

A word meaning the same animal is found in old english [horscwh�l] and old nordic [hrosshvalr] meaning 'Horse Whale'

Those of us who has read C S Lewis's 'Out of the silent planet' regognize the word "Hross" as the name of one of the civilized species inhabiting Mars (the other species are Seroni/Sorn and Pfilltriggi) The Hrossa look more like seals than horses, so dear C S Lewis turn it around a bit ;-)