surica

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Attestation:	VB·30 (surica/ciponis/f) (1)
Language:	Celtic
adapted to:	Latin
Word Type:	proper noun
Semantic Field:	personal name
Grammatical Categories:	nom. sg. fem.
Stem Class:	ā
Morphemic Analysis:	sū̆r-ik-ā
Phonemic Analysis:	/su/ūrikā/
Meaning:	'Surica'

Commentary

The name surica, suricus is also attested in CIL V 5618 suricae (dat., Castelseprio), 4856 surici (gen., Maderno), as well as III 4197 surica. Rhŷs 1913: 55 f. suggests a segmentation into a first element su- 'good' and second element rik- as in OIr. richt 'form, appearance' (i.e. 'of good appearance'), but the latter cannot be divorced from its suffix and probably corresponds to Gaul. riktu- (see Irslinger 2002: 123). Delamarre 2007: 175, 230, 233 also separates su-, but goes with rīg- 'ruler' as second element, possibly with regard to CIL V 8939 surix (Vercelli) and XII 4172 uitousurix (p. 203). This is semantically attractive (and cf. Lambert 2000b: 103 f. on Châteaubleau surexetesi and OIr. suirge 'courting' < *su-regi̯ā), but both readings are uncertain – in surix̣, ⟨x⟩ appears to be damaged; a genitive uitousuri[gis] is an emendation given in AcS III: ? and KGP: 298 for uitousuri[, but the partly preserved letter after iota may as well be ⟨c⟩. Also, in thematised surīcus, surīca < surīgs, the velar should be /g/ at least in some of the attestations, which renders this analysis unlikely. Since sur(i)us, sur(i)a as well as names which look like hypocoristic derivations, such as surianus, surilla, surucca, are well and widely attested (see AcS II: 1672–1682, Delamarre 2007: 175) – including sura at Oleggio, it seems preferable to analyse surica as a hypocoristic from a name in sur- (of uncertain derivation) with a velar suffix -ik-.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

AcS	Alfred Holder, Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz, Leipzig: Teubner 1896–1907.
CIL	Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. (17 volumes, various supplements)
Delamarre 2007	Xavier Delamarre, Noms de personnes celtiques dans l'épigraphie classique. Nomina Celtica Antiqua Selecta Inscriptionum, Paris: Errance 2007.