iaur (“old”) + wain (adj. superlative suffix) #The meaning of the last element is not entirely clear.
Sindarin
iarwain
adjective. old-young (that is old, but yet still very vigorous)
iarwain
noun. the oldest
iarwain
masculine name. Old-young
A title of Tom Bombadil (LotR/1114), translated “Old-young” in an unpublished letter from 1968 (RC/128). This name is a combination of iaur “old” (SA/iant) and the lenited form of gwain “young”.
Conceptual Development: In Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, this name first appeared as N. Iaur (the adjective iaur “old” as a name) alongside N. Erion, both translated “Eldest” (TI/125).
Element in
- S. Iarwain Ben-adar “Oldest and Fatherless”
iarwain
eldest
iarwain (based on Iarwain as a name of Tom Bombadil, perhaps literally ”old-new”).
iarwain
eldest
(based on Iarwain as a name of Tom Bombadil, perhaps literally ”old-new”).
Elvish name of Tom Bombadil, rendered as "oldest" in LotR, which made some people interpret this word as a superlative form (of iaur ). However this theory was later controversed. While no other superlatives in -wain are known, einior , attested in PM/358 (where it is rendered as "eldest"), makes a much better candidate for a superlative construct (conceivably built from the intensive prefix an- and iaur shortened in final position). Moreover, comparing iarwain to narwain , Bertrand Bellet noted in Lambengolmor/642 that iarwain could as well be interpreted as an old compound construct, of the primitive jâra (Q. yára, S. iaur ) and *winjâ (Q. vinya, S. gwain ). He thus suggested that iarwain could actually mean "old-new". This analysis was afterwards confirmed by RC/128, quoting a (yet) unpublished draft letter from Tolkien dated from 1968, which states: "Iarwain = old-young, presumably as far as anybody remembered, he had always looked much the same, old but very vigorous"