citolla-

This word is found in the two inscriptions of the Persian priest Mitridaštas (second half of the 6^th c. BCE), one of which, viz. LW 23, has recently been dated accurately to 542-541 BCE, i.e. 5 years after the fall of the Lydian empire (Euler & Sasseville 2019a:134).

[D.S.]

nom./acc. sg. (?)	citollad	LW 23.9 (Sardis)
		LW 24.7 (Sardis)

The grammatical analysis of citollad (and in analogy citalad) is highly controversial. Brandenstein 1929a:283f. (also Brandenstein 1931b:15, Grumach 1934a:190, Carruba 1969a:52) treats it as an adverb or as an ablative, which can now be considered outdated on formal grounds; there are no Lydian adverbs or ablatives in -ad. Zgusta 1955a:531 and Gusmani 1964a:91 (also Vetter 1959a:19, Schürr 2004b:196, Euler & Sasseville 2019a:132) open the possibility of seeing a noun denoting something bad, i.e. a nom./acc. sg. n., which is certainly more attractive. Another possibility for citollad pitad is to see two denominative verbs in asyndetic relation to one another. Thus, they would both express forbidden actions closely related to one another. However, this option seems less appealing; cf. under Stem.

[D.S.]

Since citollad occurs in the protasis of a curse formula, scholars widely agree that it refers to a negative action; cf. Brandenstein 1931b:15 “sinfully”, Zgusta 1955a:531 “sacrilege”, Gusmani 1964a:90f. “evil” (his etymological connection with CLuw. ādduwāl(i)- ‘bad, evil’ is, however, untenable). The meaning ‘evil’ has been adopted by Dusinberre 2003a:230. Taking into account that citolla- must be derived from cito- occurring in the previous sentence, citollad should refer to something in relation to the task performed by the cito-person. Therefore, the gratuitous meaning ‘bad, evil’ should be discarded, rather the forbidden action is likely to refer to a precise restriction instead of to an unspecific offense such as to “to do evil”. Pending a firm etymological approach of the (verbal) root ci-, no meaning is assigned here.

[D.S.]

Taking the geminate -ll- in citollad as a recent assimilation (see Melchert 1994a:354f.), it may represent the original cluster *-d^hl- (PIE instrument suffix *-d^hlo-); cf. Lyc. B kille-, derived from the agent noun cito-. In any case, further evidence is needed.

[D.S.]

For the derivational base, see Lyd. cito- and cf. Lyd. citala-.