… Tolkien states that “the suffix -ath (originally a collective noun-suffix) was used as a group plural, embracing all things of the same name, or those associated in some special arrangement or organization. So elenath (as plural of êl, [irregular] pl. elin) meant ‘the host of the stars’ …
Yet another ending is -hoth “folk, host, horde”, … The Silmarillion Appendix (entry hoth) states that this ending is “nearly always used in a bad sense” … The one who first called the Snowmen of Forochel Lossoth (for \Loss-hoth, *loss = “snow”) evidently did not like them.
- Sindarin, the Noble Tongue
Relevant username is relevant.