uinom

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Attestation:	VB·3.1 (latumarui:sapsutai:pe:uinom:natom) (1)
Language:	Celtic
Word Type:	nominal
Grammatical Categories:	nom., acc. sg. masc., neut.
Stem Class:	o
Morphemic Analysis:	u̯īn-om or u̯ind-om
Phonemic Analysis:	/u̯īnom/ or /u̯in(d)om/
Meaning:	'wine' or 'fair' (?)

Commentary

The form uinom was confidently identified with Latin uinum 'wine' already by Lattes 1896: 103, whom most later scholars followed. Since the Wanderwort, by whichever way exactly it found its way into Celtic (Lejeune 1971: 75, n. 262), is expected to be neuter in Old Celtic as in Latin, the form can in principle be either a nominative or an accusative, but is usually considered to be the former (Rhŷs 1913: 66, 1914: 25 f., Lejeune 1971: 75, Stifter 2020: 34; accusative: Solinas 1995: 375).

An alternative interpretation is suggested by Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 145, who read the word as an acc. pl. uinoś (see the inscription page) and thus preferred to identify the base as u̯ind- 'white, fair' (with */nd/ reflected by ⟨n⟩ as per usual) – though we consider her reading of the ending mistaken, an interpretation of uinom as a neuter nom. or acc. sg. or masculine acc. sg. adjective 'beautiful' uel sim. is certainly possible, particularly with regard to the increasing doubtfulness of the interpretation of the second part of the phrase as 'Naxian' (see naśom). What makes this analysis questionable is the position, as we would not expect an adjective to stand before the noun in an attributive phrase.

Corinna Salomon