c.1200, aluisc, "belonging to or pertaining to the elves; supernatural," from elf + -ish. Old English used ilfig in this sense.
elvish in Technology
character 1. The Tengwar of Feanor, a table of letterforms resembling the beautiful Celtic half-uncial hand of the "Book of Kells". Invented and described by J.R.R. Tolkien in "The Lord of The Rings" as an orthography for his fictional "elvish" languages, this system (which is both visually and phonetically elegant) has long fascinated hackers (who tend to be intrigued by artificial languages in general). It is traditional for graphics printers, plotters, window systems, and the like to support a Feanorian typeface as one of their demo items. By extension, the term might be used for any odd or unreadable typeface produced by a graphics device. 2. The typeface mundanely called "B"ocklin", an art-decoish display font. [Why?] [Jargon File] (1998-04-28)