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N. othlon n. “paved way” (Category: Road)

N. othlon, n. “paved way” (Category: Road)
G. mal¹ “paved way, road”
ᴺS. ^othlonn “paved way”
G. paglant “a pavement, *paved road or way”
G. pagri “pavement”

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