ateratos

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Attestation:	TI·21 (ateratos) (1)
Language:	Celtic
Word Type:	proper noun
Semantic Field:	personal name
Grammatical Categories:	nom. sg. masc.
Stem Class:	o
Morphemic Analysis:	ate-rat-os or ater-at-os
Phonemic Analysis:	/ateratos/
Meaning:	'Ateratos'

Commentary

o-stem personal name, also attested in CIL XIII 11090 aterato (dat., Bourges, Aquitania), of uncertain analysis.
Option 1: base ater- 'father' + suffix -at-, thus Tibiletti Bruno 1966: 23 f., 1978: 144 and 1981: 158 f., Morandi 1999: 168, Morandi 2004: 531 (no. 21).
Option 2: prefix ate- + rato- 'fortune', thus KGP: 57 (who translates '(he who is) beyond luck'), 257, GPN: 144, 240, Lejeune 1971: 54, Motta 2000: 215, GPN: 255, Delamarre 2007: 229.
Numerous (probably) Celtic names in what looks like ater- + ending or suffix, e.g. aterio at Carona, atera, aterus (taken for an Italic/Etruscan name by Lochner von Hüttenbach 1989: 20), aterius, CIL III 5783 aterissae (dat., Raetia), V 6518 ateroni (gen., Novara), V 6520 ateronia (Novara), point toward option 1, though all of these could theoretically be hypocoristics and derivations of a prefixed ate-ratos. The putative suffix -at- is known from names with Celtic base in the Milano area (Tibiletti Bruno 1966: 23 with n. 65), but not overall common in Gaulish personal names. Option 2 is supported by comparison with other names with prefix ate- and a passive participle, like ategnatos lit. 'reborn', ateuritus lit. 'found again', ate-ratos thus lit. 'granted again'. See also Salomon 2024: 161.

David Stifter, 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.