uarsileos

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Attestation:	TI·40 (komoneos/uarsileos) (1)
Language:	Celtic
Word Type:	proper noun
Semantic Field:	patronymic
Grammatical Categories:	nom. sg. masc.
Stem Class:	i̯o
Morphemic Analysis:	u̯ars-il(l)-(i)i̯-os
Phonemic Analysis:	/u̯arsil(l)eos/
Meaning:	'son of Uarsilos'

Commentary

Patronym in -(i)i̯o-, spelled ⟨eo⟩ (Lejeune 1971: 52, Evans 1972: 181). The analysis of the underlying personal name uarsillos is unclear. Lejeune 1971: 65, n. 230 compares CIL V 2308 uarsae (dat., Chioggia), assuming that the name is formed with the suffix -il(l)-. The sequence /rs/, of which uarsileos is the only attestation in the corpus, was assimilated to /rr/ in Celtic; sporadic attestations of /rs/ in Gaulish inscriptions may be explained on an individual basis as secondary clusters at morpheme borders, specifically u̯ers° from preverb u̯er- 'over' and second element in /s/° (Stifter 2024: 13), but this cannot apply to u̯ars- (pace Delamarre 2007: 232, who segments u̯ar-sil(l)-os with second element silo- 'progeny' (DLG: 273), but u̯ar- without composition vowel is isolated). Eska 2009b: 114 assumes that etymological /rs/ is sporadically preserved in Gaulish inscriptions, e.g. RIIG GAR-10-04 (RIG G-206) ουερσικνος (Nîmes) < PIE *u̯ers- 'rise'. If /rs/ is indeed etymological, the same root may be present in u̯arsillos (zero grade *u̯r̥seh₂- 'high point' > *u̯arsā- > *u̯arrā- > OIr. farr 'prop, post', see Stifter 2024: 13). See also Salomon 2024: 155.

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.
DLG	Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental, 2nd, revised edition, Paris: Errance 2003.
Eska 2009b	Joseph Francis Eska, "Remarks on the 3. plural preterite in -us in Continental Celtic", Die Sprache 47,1 (2007–2008 [2009]), 108–119.
Evans 1972	D. Ellis Evans, "A comparison of the formation of some Continental and early Insular Celtic personal names", Études Celtiques 13/1 (1972), 171–193.