: I don't recall saying he spoke of "half-dwarves" as, say, a role-playing gamer would speak of them. The reference is to the army that took Cair Andros and crossed Anduin there to block the road to Rohan:

:

:   So now at least the City was besieged, enclosed in a ring of
:   foes.  The Rammas was broken, and all the Pelennor abandoned
:   to the Enemy.  The last word to come from outside the walls
:   was brought by men flying down the northward road ere the Gate
:   was shut.  They were the remnant of the guard that was kept at
:   that point where the way from Anorien and Rohan ran into the
:   townlands.  Ingold led them, the same who had admitted Gandalf
:   and Pippin less than five days before, while the sun still rose
:   and there was hope in the morning.
: 
: 
: 
:   'There is no news of the Rohirrim', he said.  'Rohan will not
:   come now.  Or if they come, it will not avail us.  The new host
:   that we had tidings of has come first, from over the River by
:   way of Andros, it is said.  They are strong: battalions of Orcs
:   of the Eye, and countless companies of Men of a new sort that
:   we have not met before.  Not tall, but broad and grim, bearded
:   like dwarves, wielding great axes.  Out of some savage land in
:   the wide East they come, we deem.  They hold the northward
:   road;  and many have passed on into Anorien.  The Rohirrim
:   cannot come.'
: 

: I don't recall Tolkien ever calling them Half-dwarves. I think the convention was developed by gamers and Tolkien fans have simply fallen into the happen of using that term.

I don't see how the term "not tall" can infer "short" like a dwarf. To me it could merely mean of average height or perhaps a bit shorter. The fact that they were broad and had beards like Dwarves tell us nothing about their height or lineage. They are described as "Men of a new sort", not Dwarves. My view is that some have put a slant on the passage that it does not warrant.