mīlušga/i-

The lexeme is attested once in a NS Luwian ritual.

[E.R.]

nom./acc. sg. n.

mi-i-lu-uš-ga-an

KBo 13.260 ii 29

(CTH 766, NS)

Checked against the photograph in the Konkordanz.

[E.R.]

The word occurs in the last part of a four-part incantation, in which three times a person is said to receive a characteristic feature: “They shall give the ability to run to the quick, they shall give force to the forceful, they shall give fertility to the fertile.” With the correct order established, the focus is then turned on what needs to be corrected. To that purpose, reference is made to those who are sinister and cruel and who are supposed to receive mīlušgan, i.e. the transmission of something like ‘weakness’ is intended to have a negative impact on the powers of the cruel and sinister. Under this analysis, Yakubovich’s (pers. comm.) proposal ‘gentleness (?)’ lends itself to a coherent interpretation of the passage, since the following clauses of the incantation make a request for the reconciliation between a child and its mother and father. The son shall become close to his mother again (for ir(ḫ)wa- ‘the inside (within the border)’ see Mouton & Yakubovich 2019a), and agreeable to his father. The turning-point when the sinister and cruel receive gentleness is to be understood in both a general manner and more specifically with reference to the child becoming calm again.

[E.R.]

The adjectival suffix -ška/i- favors an analysis as a neuter adjective in substantival use. Obviously, the base word mīlu- is a u-stem abstract noun derived from an adjective in *-lo-, which goes back to the same root as the Hittite causative mīnu- ‘to soften’.

[E.R.]

For the lemma head see CLuw. *mī-.