dēu̯-

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Type:	lexical
Meaning:	'god'
Language:	Celtic
Phonemic analysis:	/dēu̯/-
From PIE:	*dei̯u̯o- 'god'
From Proto-Celtic:	*dei̯u̯o- 'god'
Attestation:	teu, teuoχtoni(o)n, tiou, śium

Commentary

Lexically in OIr. día, OW duiu, OCorn. duy, MBret. doe 'god' (LEIA: D-64, Matasović 2009 s.v. *dēwo-) from PIE *dei̯u̯o- 'god' as well attested throughout the Indogermania (IEW: 184 f., NIL: 72). Common in variants deuo-, deo-, diuo-, dio-, deio- in Continental Celtic personal names, as usually first, but also second element in compounds (e.g. deuognata, deuorix, sacrodiuus) and in simplex names (e.g. deuiatis, deuilla, deuus, deuuonis) as well as toponyms (AcS I: 1274–1276, KGP: 190 f., GPN: 191–193, Lochner von Hüttenbach 1989: 67 f., DLG: 142 f., Meid 2005: 229 f., Stüber 2005: 103 f., Delamarre 2007: 219 et passim, Stüber et al. 2009: 252, 273). The glide was dropped in deo-/dio- (cf. biu̯o- > bio-). The variation between e and i (and sporadic ei) is usually put down to Latin influence, dialectal variation, or the closed pronunciation of /ē/, though continuations of zero-grade derivations of the root *dei̯-, *di- may also be involved (*di̯-eu̯- in OIr. die, día 'day' etc., *di-u̯- in Lat. dius, *di-u̯-i̯o- in Ved. divyá-, s. NIL: 69–81, Matasović 2009: 101 s.v. **diy(w)o- 'day', DLG: 145 s.v. diíiuion 'des dieux, des divins' on the Gaulish form in Chamalières), cf. śium. The etymological diphthong is preserved in Celtib. onomastic teiuo- (K.6.1 teiuoreikis, K.1.3 teiuantikum, see MLH V.1: 372 f.).

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

AcS	Alfred Holder, Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz, Leipzig: Teubner 1896–1907.
Delamarre 2007	Xavier Delamarre, Noms de personnes celtiques dans l'épigraphie classique. Nomina Celtica Antiqua Selecta Inscriptionum, Paris: Errance 2007.
DLG	Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental, 2nd, revised edition, Paris: Errance 2003.