metalui

edit with form

Attestation:	TI·36.3 (]ni:metalui[) (1)
Language:	Celtic
Word Type:	proper noun
Semantic Field:	patronymic
Grammatical Categories:	dat. sg. masc.
Stem Class:	o
Morphemic Analysis:	?-al-ūi̯
Phonemic Analysis:	/metalūi̯/
Meaning:	'for the son of Metos'

Commentary

Patronym in the dative formed with the suffix -alo-. The base of the underlying personal name cannot be securely identified. A possibility is medu- 'honey(wine)' (KGP: 241, DLG: 222 f., Meid 2005: 235, Delamarre 2007: 226 et passim), though a derived o-stem should be meduos (cf. MEDOVI (gen.) CIL V 7972). The base may be the same as that in metelui, metelikna without the l-suffix (PIE *h₂met- 'to mow, cut'). među- 'judgement' (KGP: 240 f., GPN: 367 f., DLG: 223, Stüber 2005: 94, Meid 2005: 235 f., Delamarre 2007: 227 et passim) can also not be excluded (see the inscription page on the spelling). A comparison with Italic names in met(t)o- as proposed by Risch 1984: 31, n. 19, 1989: 1582 (also Motta 2000: 201) is not necessary; neither is the assumption that metalui is haplological spelling of metelalui for comparison with metelui (Risch 1989: 1582, Motta 2000: 201). See also Salomon 2024: 150.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

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.
DLG	Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental, 2nd, revised edition, Paris: Errance 2003.