poininos

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Attestation:	BG·41.5 (ześu:poininos:kopenatis:tonoiso) (1)
Language:	Celtic
Word Type:	proper noun
Grammatical Categories:	nom. sg. masc.
Stem Class:	o
Morphemic Analysis:	poinin-os
Phonemic Analysis:	poininos
Meaning:	'Poininos'

Commentary

The theonym is attested at least three times at Carona (poinunei [different stem?], penini), and also known from numerous Latin inscriptions at the pass sanctuary on the Great St. Bernard, where (Iuppiter) Poeninos was worshipped in Roman times (see Wiblé 2008).

The name of the Great St. Bernard, summus poeninus/alpis poenina, was connected in antiquity and later (see Wiblé 2008b: 25) with the poenī (Carthaginians) and Hannibal's passage through the Alps. This folk etymology is repudiated by Livy (XXI 38.6–9), who points out that Hannibal crossed at a different pass, and reports that the mountains are named after the deity whose sanctuary is situated on the pass summit. On the assumption that the Roman Iuppiter Poeninus is the result of interpretatio romana of a Celtic deity, Zeuss 1837: 5, n. * suggested an etymology from *k^u̯enno- 'head, top, summit', which has been widely accepted and is supported by the name of the Apennines, derived from the same root (see Sims-Williams 2006: 98) and now also penini (and arguably abbreviated pe); see Eska & Eska 2022: 163–165 (also, with counter-arguments, on an alternative etymology). The Latin spelling ⟨oe⟩ would then be the result of the secondary association with the name of the Poenī (cf. Motta 2010: 401 f., Eska & Eska 2022: 163 f.). Uncertainty regarding the nature of the stem vowel on the part of the Romans who crossed the pass is indicated by some variation in the spelling: Eska & Eska 2022: 162 count 26 instances of poenino beside one instance each of peonin[o], phoeni[no], poinino, puoenin|o, and py|nino. The spellings with ⟨oi⟩ at Carona and arguably at the sanctuary (Walser 1984: no. 25) are explained as re-Celticised variants of the Latin name form (Eska & Eska 2022: 164, n. 14), indicating a low dating for the respective rock inscriptions.

Bibliography

Eska & Eska 2022	Joseph F. Eska, Charlene M. Eska, "Epigraphic and linguistic observations on the inscription at the so-called Mur d'Hannibal (Liddes, Valais)", Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 69/1 (2022), 159–182.