ὑσσός

The origin of Ancient Greek ὑσσός ‘javelin’ is unknown (GEW II:975; DELG:1162; EDG:1539). Allowing the possibility of a mere Gleichklang, Bechtel 1906:272 cautiously derived it from Carian on the basis of personal names such as Υσσις, Υσσωλλ/δος, etc. Overlooking Bechtel’s cautiousness, this proposal was followed by some scholars (Keil 1908a:531 n. 1, Ševoroškin 1969:345, Georgiev 1981a:214, Sasseville 2014-2015a:110), but it was omitted from most of the overviews of Anatolian loanwords in Greek (Yakubovich 2010d:113f., 146f., Yakubovich 2013a:118–120; Sh. Hawkins 2010a:224f.; Gasbarra & Pozza 2012a:189–196, Gasbarra & Pozza 2019a:57–70; Hajnal 2014a:110f., Hajnal 2018a:2041f.; Oreshko 2018a) as well as from the papers on Greek – Carian linguistic contacts (Adiego 2007b and van den Hout 2014a). Zahlhaas & Neumann 1994a:166 n. 8 argued that ὑσσός was not labelled as Carian by antique authors and it is not attested in Carian inscriptions, but these objections clearly do not exclude Bechtel’s hypothesis. More problematic is that the meaning of Carian uśoλ / wśoλ underlying these names is unknown (see s.v., see already Lewy 1928a:30) and that the initial /h/ remains unexplained, which excludes this derivation (cf. Simon 2018a:407, who speculates about a borrowing the other way round; rejected also by DELG:1162, albeit without arguments). For a Semitic derivation see Lewy 1928a:30f. (not included in the overviews of Rosół 2013a, Rosół 2018a).

[Zs.S.]

Last updated: 27 July 2020