anteśilu

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Attestation:	TI·25 (anteśilu) (1)
Language:	Celtic
Word Type:	proper noun
Semantic Field:	personal name
Grammatical Categories:	nom. sg. masc.
Stem Class:	on
Morphemic Analysis:	an(de)-teđ-il-ū or an-teđ-il-ū
Phonemic Analysis:	/an(n)te?il(l)ū/
Meaning:	'Anteśilu'

Commentary

on-stem personal name in -il(l)o-, probably a hypocoristic of a dithematic name formed with the base teđi- and a preverb (e.g. Lejeune 1971: 54, n. 136, Motta 2000: 215, Tibiletti Bruno 1965b, Tibiletti Bruno 1965d: 93–104, Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 144, Tibiletti Bruno 1981: 160, Stifter 2010: 370). The name is attested in Old Celtic, with various spellings of the tau gallicum sound, e.g. CIL XII 5690,9 antessi (gen., Narbonnensis), V 7276 antesti[ (Susa), III 6581 antesstius numisianus (Alexandria), possibly also RIIG SEL-01-06 (RIG G-240) ]nteθi[ (Bibracte; Lejeune in RIG emends to kon-teθi-), with a third element in the British coin legend antedrig[ (s. Delamarre 2007: 23). S. AcS I: 159, GPN: 412, KGP: 278, Meid 2005: 117 f., Stüber 2005: 100 f., Delamarre 2007: 234 et passim). The preverb could be privative an- or intensifying ande-. While the first option seems obvious on first glance, the spelling of /n/ before /t/ would be irregular in a simple sequence /nt/. ande-, with /e/ lost through haplology and ⟨nt⟩ reflecting a complex cluster [n^dt]/[nnt] (⟨n⟩ = [n^d] or [nn] < *nd), is usually preferred (following Lejeune 1971: 25, n. 69). Differently Uhlich 2007: 391–394, who argues that the preservation of the cluster /nt/ in an-teđi- could be due to the morpheme border; the lack of any attestation of ande-teđi- without haplology is certainly notable. Cf. maybe autesai with similar semantics. See also Salomon 2024: 161 f.

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.