puta-

This lexeme is found mainly in a dedicatory inscription and perhaps once in a grave inscription including a long biography.

[D.S.]

acc. sg.	putu	TL 26.3 (Tlos)
		TL 26.8 (Tlos)
		TL 26.17 (Tlos)
		TL 29.12 (Tlos)

The context of TL 26 in which putu occurs makes it clear that putu denotes a sacrificial animal (Schürr 1991-1993a:165f., Neumann 1999a:51, Melchert (DLL:53), Neumann 2007a:294, Gehrisch 2018a:32f.; contra Hajnal 1995a:157 n. 162):

              me=kumezeiti nuredi nuredi a[ … ]ni qla (e)bi putu kbisñn(i) iprehi kbi[sñni … ] (TL 26.16-17)

‘They will sacrifice each month [ … ] for the local precinct a two year-old putu, a two[ year-old] (animal) of the open field [ … ].’

Melchert (DLL:53) refers to puwa- ‘goat’, implying that puta- could be a derivative and therefore denote some kind of goat. Neumann 2007a:294 insists that it could refer to any kind of animal that could be sacrificed such as a rooster or even a boar.Schürr 2016a:770 n. 35 sees putu instead as a place name, which is unfounded and easily refuted when considering the whole sentence.The context surrounding the attestation in TL 29.12 is obscure and does not help any further.

[D.S.]

This lexeme is attested in the inscription of the inscribed pillar of Xanthos, dated contextually to shortly after the ascension of Artaxerxes II in 405-404 BCE and stylistically to around 400 BCE (Borchhardt & Eichner 1997-1999a:19f.).

[D.S.]

acc. sg.

putu

TL 44d.5 (Xanthos)

This word has often been taken as a verbal form of pu-^(di) ‘to write’; cf. Shevoroshkin 1977a:135, DLL:125, Neumann 2007a:294, Gehrisch 2018a:90, Schürr 2018b:77. However, this interpretation does not make any sense in the sacrificial context. Instead, it is equated here with Lycian A puta- c. ‘(sacrificial animal)’.

[D.S.]

For the meaning, see Lyc. A puta- c., and for a translation of the context, see Lyc. B tulijeli(je)-.

[D.S.]

No etymology can be offered.

[D.S.]