ẽtam(i)-

This lexeme occurs once in three inscriptions of various genres found in Sardis and datable to the 5^th or 4^th century BCE and perhaps in one additional inscription found in the upper Maeander valley and datable to the late 6^th or early 5^th century BCE.

[I.Y.]

The alleged occurrence of ẽtams in LW 23.19 (Buckler 1924a:43) is not confirmed by the inspection of the photograph of LW 23 published in Buckler 1924a, Plate X. At the spot where Buckler and the subsequent editors spotted ẽṭaṃs ụν, I can only read ẽ.a.s.ν, which is not enough for the lexical identification of the sequence.

[I.Y.]

The correct meaning was independently discovered in Heubeck 1959a and Vetter 1959a, see Gusmani 1964a:108f. for research history. The most telling context is LW 23.9, where ẽtamν apparently refers to the text LW 23 itself, which contains the decree of Mitridaštas. For a parallel to this passage in a Greek inscription from Sardis, see Gusmani 1980a:52. Also helpful is LW 10.18, where ẽtamν is accompanied by the predicate unadν ‘to let know (?)’ (or ‘to prescribe’, according to the older interpretation’). The fact that the texts LW 10 and LW 23 have little in common besides the presence of prescriptive passages represents an additional argument for the proposed interpretation.
The alternative interpretation ‘name’, still defended in Meriggi 1963a:31f., became devoid of any rationale after the Luwian word for ‘name’, formerly read as /adaman/, was reinterpreted as /alaman/.

[I.Y.]

Synchronically, this is a semi-vocalic stem, accented on the initial vowel. The segmentation of the suffix -m(i)- appears likely.

[I.Y.]

1. ẽtamνi-

The Lydian word ẽtamν has been connected with PAnat. *Hant- in e.g. Hitt. ḫandā(i)-^(mi) ‘to order’ (Gusmani 1980a:139). Because of the current debate on the fate of the second laryngeal in Lydian, this etymology is no longer assured.

[I.Y.]