kint-

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Type:	lexical
Meaning:	'first'
Language:	Celtic
Phonemic analysis:	/kent/-
From PIE:	*ken-tu- 'beginning'
From Proto-Celtic:	*kentu- 'first, before'
Attestation:	kituaretos

Commentary

Common element in Gaulish personal names, especially in combination with variants of gen- 'born' → 'firstborn', e.g. cintugnatos/-a, cintugenus/-a, cintus, cintua, cintussa, RIG G-278 κιντουλλος (AcS I: 1021–1025, GPN: 179 f., KGP: 172, Lochner von Hüttenbach 1989: 56, DLG: 117, Stüber 2005: 102, Delamarre 2007: 64–66, 216, Stüber et al. 2009: 257, 272 f.). Lexically in OIr. cét- 'first', MW cynt, MBret. quent 'earlier, before', etc. (Matasović 2009: 201, LEIA: C-83). tu-abstract from the PIE root *ken(h₁)- 'begin' (IEW: 563 f., Irslinger 2002: 91, Zair 2012: 184); [e] > [ɪ] before [nt] is with few exceptions spelled ⟨i⟩ in Gaulish.

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.