Meriadoc Brandybuck to be an actual phonetic transcription of the name in Tolkien's invented language of Westron, which Tolkien said he transliterated to English as follows: The nickname "Merry" represents his actual nickname "Kali" which meant "handsome, happy", and "Meriadoc" serves as a plausible name from which a nickname meaning "happy" could be derived. Alternately, "The Middle-Earth Encyclopedia" writes that Meriadoc means "joyful" or "cheerful," while Merry means "having high spirits." Théoden called Merry "Holdwine", and the Hobbit was thus known as such in the records of Rohan. It most probably derives from the Old English words "hold" and "wine", respectively meaning
Gamgee Tissue and "Brandywine" (an obvious English pun on the Elvish "Baranduin", 'justified' as translation of a similarly alcoholic pun in Westron). In this context we may suspect that the Professor is speaking tongue-in-cheek; the "Gamgee" entry is phrased such that it can be read as a poker-faced, academic way of pointing out that the joke is there, whether or not he intended it. Gamgee Tissue Gamgee Tissue is a surgical dressing invented by Dr. Joseph Sampson Gamgee in Birmingham, England, in 1880. Gamgee Tissue has a thick layer of absorbent cotton wool between two layers of absorbent gauze. It represents the