Ruma and Mankar will keep their meanings: the Mother's Throat and Master. These are Ehlnofex, I believe. The rest just show some effort to be "cryptic," without consulting, or building upon, language in Tamriel.

If non fiction language is used, integrate into the languages somehow.

Words like Welkynd aren't really creative etymology, they're just archaic English words that have been resurrected, and mean exactly what they always have. Like Hortator.

Right. Some words in TES are directly taken or adopted from from "real world" language. See http://www.imperial-library.info/obscure_text/nu-hatta.shtml. A quick google search reveals it's an entity which can change its six, which makes perfect sense given who the term is being applied to. And "Welkynd" almost certainly comes from "http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/welkin."

Another word based on archaic English:
Morrowind
morrow -morning (archaic) + wind (remains in tomorrow which literally means till morning)
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/morrow

However saying that names are only archaic English isn't correct take for example skjorta -shirt (Swedish), Anaxes αναξ (anax) -master, lord, Bruma Lat. bruma -winter, winter weather, Gaiar Alata γαια (gaia) -earth, land, country + alata, alatus -winged, furnished with wings, ala -wing

I didn't say that developers indeed intended to make names exactly like that, this discussion is speculative and unless someone email Bethesda or Todd Howard and ask them how some names were created will never now for sure.
http://www.gamesas.com/eng/contact_email.php

Nalion's explanation of Skyrim is better because of translation in German version Himmelsrand -sky's rim, comparing names from different versions could shed some light on other names as well.
As for Welkynd both welkin -sky and Kind -child (German) could be right because of ingame explanation that name literally means sky's child.
Edit:Now is on the list.

I doubt asking Todd would do much good, he's not big on the actual development of lore side of things.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8583911.stm

The point is choice words from the real world need a fictional history to be cemented in the lore, no matter how obvious or unorigional the word may be. Made up words are just accepted and usualy come with some kind of contextual clue for the reader to make sense of it, or until a dev begins a word roundup.

Re: Morrowind
I remember that the name comes from "Morrowindl", an island with a great volcano in its center (!) - from the fantasy novel series Shannara by Terry Brooks. I remember a thread some years ago where Ted commented on it. I don't remember whether the similarity was intentional or just something that stuck in someone's head and got used then.

If I recall the thread correctly, it was "something that stuck in someone's head and got used then."

Very well likely they use "name generators". http://ebon.pyorre.net/

It uses an algorithm to generate names based on the chapters provided, so more than likely it will by chance hit the root of many archaic languages.

Anyone also note "Morrowind" as morro-wind, Morro [In English] being a sharp peak that breaks out of a body of water...

Anyone also notice the dunmeri use of "Ouada" for river,
Ouada often seen in English as Oeud or Ouadi, or frankicised as Wadi, Is a Arabic word for river, specificly a type of desert river that may or may not be seasonaly dry.

Another thing, Tor [In English] is a mass of exposed bedrock, standing abruptly above its surroundings, Tor is a mound, Reman emerged from a mound, And Sance Tor, is not Sacred Tower, but Sacred Mound, as in a burial mound.

Etymology is a difficult field to explore, But I think it would be more interesting to focus on "which" earth tongues are most associated with which provinces and races. In Morrowind many Spanish, Latin and even a little Italian words are used for Imperial named places and objects, Caldera (Volcanic Pit kinda), Canton (Quarter), Sanctus (Sanctified) and Bella Donna,

The Last one I find ironic since the plant Bella Donna [Italian] used in Morrowind's Bloodmoon expansion, was called by it's English name "Nightshade" in Oblivion.

That may be the case with Balmora as well. A Ballmora appeared in Star Wars as a planetary system in the EU some years ago, and the word Balmora may be associated with other things as well.

This seems like an excellent thread and I have yet to read all of it, but I just have to point this out:



The official name of the raven is Corvus corax, the first word refers only to the genus of the species.

Okay, science nazi moment over :laugh:

Corvus -raven is Latin word, corax is Latinised Greek κοραξ (korax) -raven.
You should look at dictionaries not at Biology names.
Links to free dictionaries are on first page.

Some new words:

Dreugh
dreg -sediment in a liquid, bad person from Icelandic dregg
Staff of Magnus
Lat. magnus -large, great, big, powerful
Volendrung
vollendung -achievement, perfection (German)
Hircine
Lat. hircinus -of a goat, goatlike
Malacath
Lat. mala, malus -bad, evil, wicked + cath -battle (Scottish Gaelic)
Mundus
Lat. mundus -world, heavens, universe
Meridia
Lat. meridies -midday, noon
Argonian
argon from αργο? (argos) -lazy, inactive
Dunmer
dun -of dark color, of color partaking of a brown and black derived from donn -brown (Irish) + Lat. maritus -married man
Veloth
velo, velar -to watch, to guard (Spanish)
Baan Dar
baan -road, way, path (Dutch) dar -to give, to hand over (Spanish)
Dibella
di- -prefix signifying twofold, double, twice + bella -beauty, beautiful woman (Italian) (she was goddess of beauty)
Jode
jode (second person singular present) of joder -to damage, break, annoy, bother, to put in a difficult situation (Spanish)
Lorkhan
lor -dirty (Breton) + khān -lord (Turkic)
Malak
??? (malik) -king (Arabic) (he is known as God-King of the Orcs)
Sheogorath
???? (sheol) -abode of the dead, hell (Hebrew) + G?r -brat (German)
Jone
jone form of juene -young (Old French)
Thartaag
thar -across, through, beyond (Irish) + tag -stroke (Swedish)
Diagna
di- -prefix signifying twofold + Lat. agna -blade (known as Orichalc God of the Sideways Blade (orichalcum -valuable metal sometimes treated as mythical substance derived from ορο? (oros) -mountain + χαλκο? (chalkos) -copper)

Check http://www.imperial-library.info/dogate/daggerfacts.shtml, first.

Lore:Etymology was deleted on the wiki I guess etymologies will go to oblivion after all
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/UESPWiki:Deletion_Review/Lore:Etymology

some new etymologies:
Velvin Benirus
velvet, Lat. bene -good + russian
Tel Branora
tel -hill (Hebrew) brine + Lat. ora -coast
Skyrim sky + hrim -hoarfrost (Old Norse), icy sky for cold climate
Tamriel tamar -palm tree + i -my + el -god (Hebrew)
Pelinal
Lat. pellere -to thrust, to push + in + al -of, related to

other can also have etymologies only for reference and comparition:
Ocampa Lat. oc, ob -toward, against + campus -field
Annorax Lat. annum -year + rex -king
Dukat Lat. ducere, ducatus -to lead (leader)
Hirogen hero + generare -to born, generate
Masaka from word mask
Kazon Gr. kakos -bad + zone
Borg Gr. kybernetes -helmsman + ergon, -org -work, cyborg
Korgano Lat. cor -heart + Gr. ganos -joy
Cardassia Gr. kardia -heart + as, assis -copper coin (heart made of copper because were cruel)
Ferengi Lat. fero, ferre -to bear, to carry + angor, anxiety
Krenim Gr. chronos -time
Rancor Lat. rana -frog + cor -heart
Orpax or -gold (French) + Lat. pax -peace
Tricorder Lat. tri -three + cor, cordis -heart (three times thinker for computer com -together, with + putare -to think
Hologram Gr. holos -whole, complete + gramma -letter, writing
Android Gr. aner, andros -man + eidos, -oid -form, shape
Duras Lat. durus -hard
Ponfar Lat. ponere -to put + fari -to speak

I would never have thought of Skingrad as the Shimmering City.