oletu

edit with form

Attestation:	VB·2 (oletuamaśilu) (1)
Language:	Celtic
Word Type:	proper noun
Semantic Field:	prob. personal name
Grammatical Categories:	nom. sg. masc.
Stem Class:	on
Morphemic Analysis:	oll-ed-ū (?)
Phonemic Analysis:	/ol(l)edū/ (?)
Meaning:	'Oletu'

Commentary

See the inscription page on the context of the form – oletu is either a separate name or part of a bipartite name formula. In the former case, it is a simple on-stem individual name; in the latter case, the same is probable, though it might possibly be a patronym/appositive in -(et)u (cf. plialeθu, kiketu). See The Cisalpine Celtic Languages on theories about the origin of such a formation, and cf. amaśilu.

A name oledo is attested at Trèves (CIL XIII 3707); if this is the same formation, it indicates that the suffix in oletu is -ed- rather than agentive -et- (cf. Tibiletti Bruno 1969: 1008, n. 43). The latter is not sematically fitting in any case, if the base is ollo- 'great', which is likely despite single l in oledo and a few other forms (see AcS II: 841–850, Delamarre 2007: 144 f.). Cf. Lejeune 1971: 64, n. 213, Stüber 1998: 108, Markey & Mees 2003: 140, Morandi 2004: 549 (who alternatively compares CIL XII 4406 olitio), Villar & Prósper 2005: 286.

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.