lou

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Attestation:	BG·12 (uol), TI·3 (lou) (2)
Status:	probable
Language:	prob. Celtic
Word Type:	prob. proper noun
Semantic Field:	prob. personal name
Grammatical Categories:	indeterminable
Morphemic Analysis:	unknown
Phonemic Analysis:	unknown
Meaning:	abbreviation (?)

Commentary

Reading uncertain in BG·12, probable in TI·3.

Possibly an abbreviation of a personal name in lou-, e.g. with basis/first element lou̯k- 'bright', louern- 'fox', or lou̯- 'small' (?), or another base of unclear etymology, see Delamarre 2007: 225, DLG: 208 f. Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 143, comparing loves(i)us, assumes that lou is complete, a hypocoristic on-stem /lou̯ū/. See also Salomon 2024: 167.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

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.