>>906696
What's interesting is that in Tolkien's earlier writing, gnomes were included as a noble subrace of elves, the ones that he eventually turned into the Noldor.
I wonder if, had he kept that, we would see modern fantasy use "gnome" in a similar way, or if, in the same way the Noldor's grand stone cities, blacksmithing skill, and aggression are ignored in favour of taking inspiration from the tree-hugging Avari, such an incarnation of gnomes would also have gone under the radar.