sasamos

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Attestation:	VB·1 (ṣasamos) (1)
Language:	Celtic
Word Type:	proper noun
Semantic Field:	personal name
Grammatical Categories:	nom. sg. masc.
Stem Class:	o
Morphemic Analysis:	sags-am-os (?)
Phonemic Analysis:	/sas(s)amos/
Meaning:	'Sasamos'

Commentary

Compared with saxamus attested in Carinthia and France (e.g. CIL III 4909 saxami at Maria Saal, XIII 2766 saxxamus at Autun, 2881 saxsami at Alise-Sainte-Reine) by Rhŷs 1914: 26; saxamus is connected with the base sag- 'seek' by Delamarre 2007: 231, though the origin of -s- (old sigmatic formation? part of the superlative suffix?) is unclear. The spelling with sigma in Lepontic would then reflect the simplification of the cluster [χs] > [s(s)] (Lejeune 1971: 64 f., n. 220; see The Cisalpine Celtic Languages), though saxamus is not attested with such a spelling elsewhere. Names in sas(s)- (Holder AcS I: 1373 f., Delamarre 2007: 161), which are also attested in northern Italy (Untermann 1959: 128 f. sassius), are assumed to be ascribed to a "verbreitete[n] vorkeltische[n] Schicht" by Meid 2005: 284. Often compared with saśadis, which would indicate a different etymology. It may be noted that the sequence /ps/ in a loan name such as sapsuta could also yield /ss/ (cf. Rhŷs 1913: 66). See also Tibiletti Bruno 1966: 9–12, Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 145, Tibiletti Bruno 1981: 165. Cf. the possible abbreviation sa.

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.