Half of what? A fictional etymology of 'halfling'

Written for the same as of yet unnamed world that my stoneborn dwarfs, slime mould elves, and elf-made orcs inhabit. 

Introduction

Many have speculated about the origin of the term 'Halfling'. Each of these speculations is of interest to us, because they reveal various aspects of the beings referred to by this term as well as the various way communities have related to them. 

What is interesting in each of these various origins is that by definition, 'halfling' is a relational term. It is the 'half' of something with is 'complete', or 'full'. It is this latter aspect that the various proposed origins of the word refer to.

The following origins each vary in both their popularity as well as their plausibility. We will comment on both, though we feel it necessary to start with the following disclaimer: This piece will not attempt to provide a single correct etymology, as there are in the opinion of the authors insufficient credible records to undertake such an endeavor at the time of writing. 

1. Half the length of a human

The most popular and least likely origin of the term refers to the halflings' average length in relation to size of an average, adult human. It is not uncommon for humans to see the world solely through the lense of their own existence. After all, some of them have at one point attempted to proclaim themselves 'the measure of all things'. 

Halfling length is one of their more easily observable qualities, and it is surprisingly consistent, as they stand between 90 and 100 cm for most of their lives. Compare this with elves, who come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, dwarfs, for whom size varies mostly on the availability of sustenance at the time of liberation, and even humans, who not only vary significantly in size throughout there lives, but also between various groups and, on occasion, particularly tall or short individuals.

However, the above is also why this origin of the term is one of the least likely. Dwarfs, elves and halflings themselves use the same word to refer to these beings. The inconsistent size of elves, the fact halflings are about two-thirds the length of most dwarfs, and, most damningly, the fact that halflings could not possibly be half the size of themselves makes this proposed origin an unlikely candidate.

2. Half the appetite of a human

An interesting variation on the above is based on the observation that halflings on average consume about half the food and drink of an average human. It suffers from the same problems as the above, but is worthy of note because it tells us something fascinating about halflings that might escape the notice of most:

Halflings, being half the length of an average adult human are only an eighth of the volume and (being made of the same elements in similar proportians) mass of that same adult human.

The fact that halflings on average consume not an eighth but half of what an average human consumes, means that for their size halflings eat four times as much as humans. And need to produce four times as much as well. 

This might seem like a throwaway fact, but will be of importance to understand the following proposed etymology. 

3. Half of a parent

Human offspring is often an object of fascination and ridicule among elves, dwarfs and orcs alike. However, halfling offspring is not only similarly helpless for a comparable amount of time, they are far more demanding, both on the parent's health delivering the child as well as on the providers. 

To safely birth a halfling child, the carrying parent needs to attain a size capable of carrying the relatively large offspring without crushing their organs during pregnancy, or causing severe rupturing during labour. For a prolonged period the parent will have to 'eat for two'. While in this 'reproductive state', the carrying parent is unable to perform many other tasks, thus being a significant drain on community resources while contributing relatively little to the acquisition of these resources.

The level of altriciality of their offspring, combined with the toll childbirth takes on the carrying parent causes most halfling communities to be able to support only very few child-carrying parents at a given time, and due to the investment required to be able to carry halfling children, carrying parents often remain in that role for more than a single pregnancy. 

Various halfling communities are structured around this distinguishing reproductive quality. In some cases the carrying parents find themselves at the top of a community hierarchy, concerning themselves with matters of economy and law as a way to contribute. Other times they find themselves at the very bottom of society, reduced to 'breeders' for the community. However, in nearly all cases other members have to contribute to help take care of the carrying parent as well as the child once it is born.

This has caused some to speculate that the term halfling is used in reference to the role a member has in the contribution to the parenting of young children. Those individuals we encounter are almost never currently pregnant, nor are they preparing for pregnancy, thus those individuals are all 'halflings' as opposed to the parent who actually gives birth to the child. 

There is some precedent for this: at least one halfling community in the Lower Dales refers to pregnant members with the prefix 'most whole', but it doesn't seem universally applicable and has no further evidence to support it.

4. Half civilized

The final etymology we will consider in this piece comes from a chapter on halflings in the propaganda piece 'On the inferiority of the Demihumans' written during the infamous Genocides of the Free Cities. In it the authors present their reasoning as to the inferiority of halfings to humans as such: "Halflings don't wear shoes, unlike civilized folk. However, they do wear clothes like civilized folk. Ergo, halflings are called such because they are only half civilized, i.e. somewhere between dumb animal and proper person." We think it goes without saying that this line of reasoning is not only childlike, but that the conclusion is blatantly false, as is to be expected of a piece of writing bearing the much frowned upon slur 'demihuman'.

This chapter in 'The inferiority' is the only source that proposes this rediculous etymology, but it does inadvertently touch on something interesting: Why do the halflings often forgo footwear that protect the soles? It turns out that halfling feet are different from those of humans. It is in fact one of the only biological differences between the two creatures other than average hight difference and appetite: Able-bodied halflings can hear through their feet, specifically low sounds that can travel quite far through the earth. No one is quite sure how it works, though they seem to share the feature with large animals from the steppes called Olifantens. 

Tangent: Combined with their relatively low weight, their ability to hear through their feet is often considered an explanation for another halfling trait: comparitively exeptional sneaking skills. Given the same amount of training, halflings seem to be better at moving about quitly than any other creature of similar size and weight.

Thoughts

Halflings/hobbits are hard to make interesting, because Tolkien seems to have invented them to be anything but interesting. They are small humans, from what I have read literally (as in they are the same species), who above all do not have an interest in adventuring. Except for sometimes, when a few of them do.

This aspect, that most halflings/hobbits are primarily interested in provincial pleasantries, but that on occasion an individual gets infected with uncharacteristic wanderlust, was hard to find an analogue for to use as a basis for making them more interesting. Until I started thinking about eusocial animals, like bees, ants and naked molerats. 

Members of these species focus primarily on their own hives/families, i.e. like Tolkien's hobbits their focus is incredibly local. However, it seems that to prevent too much incest, every once in a while some of them (often males) go out into the world to find different groups to mingle genes with, which seemed very similar to the stereotypical 'wanderlust' stricken halfling/hobbit to me.

The problem is that eusociality has similarities to some rather messed up social structures from history, and making behaviour like this innate for intelligent creatures is often frowned upon as well as it mirrors real world racism. Making halflings completely eusocial therefore seemed a bit iffy to me. I was afraid I would very quickly end up in what I'll call 'Harry Potter house elf' territory. To get something akin to the stereotypical 'hobbit' halfling, I tried to only universalize the preconditions for evolving eusociality (according to wikipedia). This way I, hopefully, allow for enough variety between cultures and individuals to stay clear of the aforementioned 'HPhe' territory. 

After getting that far I noticed that halflings were still too much like 'small humans' to me to be funny. So to make them slightly more interesting I tried to make sense of the 'no shoes' thing by taking inspiration from elephants and Toph from Avatar the last airbender.

The halflings are currently my least favourite of the creatures I've made for this world. So they might very well change or be removed entire in the future.