esonius

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Attestation: BI·4 (esonius:urenti/akitu:esonius/ueriounos) (1)
Language: Celtic
adapted to: Latin
Word Type: proper noun
Semantic Field: personal name

Grammatical Categories: nom. sg. masc.
Stem Class: i̯o

Morphemic Analysis: eχs-obn-i̯-us
Phonemic Analysis: /essōnus/ or /essonnus/
Meaning: 'Esonius'

Commentary

Personal name in the nominative with Latinised ending. The base may be analysed as *eχsobn- 'fearless', cf. esopnos (see there for further comparanda), esopnio, exobna. The assimilation of [χs] > [ss] is also reflected in the two alphabetically Lepontic attestations cited. The labial in obn- may be assimilated via -ou̯n- (cf. exounomara, Delamarre 2007: X) > -ōn-, or via -omn- > -onn-. Solinas in Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2011: 104, n. 13 and 22 compares instances of *eχsobn-, but in Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013: 47 she points out that there are no other attestations of the name with completely assimilated labial, and prefers to compare esoniana [tegula] in a pottery stamp from the area of Padova (1st c. AD) – which, however, in absence of an Italic etymology, may well also belong with the *eχsobn-names.

See also the homographic patronym esonius formed from the name.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2011 Giovannella Cresci Marrone, Patrizia Solinas, "Il messaggio epigrafico: Riconoscimento del sepolcro e strategia della memoria", in: Luisa Brecciaroli Taborelli (ed.), Oro, pane e scrittura. Memorie di una comunità "inter Vercellas et Eporediam" [= Studi e ricerche sulla Gallia Cisalpina 24], Roma: Edizioni Quasar 2011, 89–106.
Cresci Marrone & Solinas 2013 Giovannella Cresci Marrone, Patrizia Solinas, Microstorie di romanizzazione. Le iscrizioni del sepolcreto rurale di Cerrione, Venezia: Edizioni Ca' Foscari 2013.
Delamarre 2007 Xavier Delamarre, Noms de personnes celtiques dans l'épigraphie classique. Nomina Celtica Antiqua Selecta Inscriptionum, Paris: Errance 2007.