wesfa-

The attestations of this adjective are limited to two burial inscriptions found in Sardis and roughly datable to the 5^th or 4^th century BCE.

[I.Y.]

The adjective wesfa- occurs two times, once modifying the noun ‘child, son’ and once modifying another noun cawλo-. The context LW 10.4 was used in order to argue the meaning ‘older’ (Meriggi 1935a:98) and ‘living’ (Gusmani 1985b). The first semantic interpretation relied on the comparison with Hitt. wezpant- ‘old’, while the second one implied the alternative comparison with Hitt. ḫuišwant- ‘living, alive’. Neither of these two solutions, however, can justify the co-occurrence between wesfa- and the verb ca-, nor are they conducive to finding the common denominator of both contexts. Therefore more credence accrues to the interpretation ‘good’, which is further backed up by the comparison with Luw. /wasu-/ ‘good, dear’ and its cognates (Schürr 2006b: 1754-1757). While the meaning of some words involved cannot be regarded as definitely established, it does seem that the denominator of both relevant contexts is the description of individuals who played an important part in the construction or maintenance of the stelae. Further semantic nuances, such as ‘dear’ or ‘obedient’, are, of course, possible.

[I.Y.]

Synchronically, this is an a-stem.  From the comparative perspective with Luwian /wasu-/, one must posit a transfer from an original u-stem, now preserved in the consonant cluster as -f- (Gérard 2005a:69).

[I.Y.]

For the possible derivational base see Lyd *wes-/wis-.