N. othlon n. “paved way” (Category: Road)
A noun appearing as N. othlon “paved way” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, a combination of N. ost “city” and N. lhonn “path” (Ety/LOD), where medial str > sr > th and final -nd > -nn > -n in Noldorin/Sindarin.
Neo-Sindarin: Some Neo-Sindarin writers update this as ᴺS. othlonn “paved way”, as suggested in Hiswelókë’s Sindarin Dictionary (HSD). Tolkien himself was inconsistent in using final -nn vs. -n, and for a time in the 2000s Neo-Sindarin writers used -nn in two-syllable words and -n only in words of three syllables or longer. Personally I would just stick with othlon.
The meaning of this word is also somewhat questionable. N. lhonn meant “path, pass” in the 1930s (vs. N. lhorn “haven = harbour”), but by the 1950s and 60s Tolkien used its successor S. lond almost exclusively to mean “haven = harbour”. Personally I would keep using othlon “paved way”, and assume some amount of semantic drift.
Reference ✧ Ety/LOD ✧ “paved way”
Elements
ost | “city, town (with wall round)” | ✧ Ety/LOD |
lhonn | “(narrow) path, strait, pass” | ✧ Ety/LOD (†lond) |
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
ᴹ√LOD > othlond > othlon | [ostlond] > [oslond] > [oθlond] > [oθlonn] > [oθlon] | ✧ Ety/LOD |