Tindómë

A Quenya name for twilight, used especially of the twilight of dawn. The name translates as 'starry twilight', referring to the time before dawn when the last stars faded from the sky. This dawn twilight was known as minuial ('first twilight') in Sindarin, and morrowdim ('morning twilight') in Mannish tongues. The most common Quenya term for the second twilight of the day, that of the evening, was undómë.

When defining the word tindómë, Tolkien states that it '...most often referred to the time near dawn,...' (The Lord of the Rings Appendix D, The Calendars, our emphasis). The use of 'most often' here reflects the fact that some older sources use the word to refer to dusk or evening twilight (given its etymology as 'starry twilight', this would presumably refer to the time when the first stars appeared in the sky). It is in this alternative sense that tindómë gave rise to the Quenya word tindómerel, 'daughter of twilight', as a poetic nane for the nightingale. This Quenya form was directly equivalent to Sindarin Tinúviel, the name given by Beren to Lúthien when he first came across her in the woods of Doriath.