kete-

This lexeme is found in a grave inscription from Telmessos.

[D.S.]

nom. sg.

kete

TL 5.4 (Telmessos)

Carruba 1980a:285 affirms that Lyc. A kete can be either a profession in apposition to the personal name Qñtbẽddi or an adverbial complement. The word kete is modified by the genitival adjective erehi. Carruba (ibid.) compares erehi with ara ‘rites’ and kete with Hitt. katta and suggests translating kete erehi with ‘according to the law’ (followed by Melchert 1994a:284, Mottausch 2011a:77). He adduces the word keti from TL 118.3, which should be read tike instead, and equates it with Hitt. katti to support his hypothesis. The other option of taking kete erehi as a title followed by a genitival adjective is much more likely especially when one compares similar contexts, where the profession of the builder of the rocked-carved grave is mentioned, e.g. axãti esbehi ‘axãti-official of horses’, (TL 128.1), axãti uwehi ‘axãti-official of cattle’ (TL 92.2). Thus, kete erehi could simply mean ‘kete-official of rites’. This option is also preferred in DLL:32. The nominal stem class of common gender nouns in -e- c. contains other titles such as manaxine- c., sbirte- c. (see under the respective lemma).

[D.S.]

No etymology possible.

[D.S.]