przze/i-

This lexeme is attested on the non-sepulchral inscription TL 26, on TL 29, dated to ca. 330 BCE (Bryce 1986a:49), as well as several times on TL 44, the inscription on the pillar of Xanthos. The pillar of TL 44 is dated stylistically to around 400 BCE and contextually to shortly after the ascension of the Persian emperor Artaxerxes II in 405-404 BCE (Borchhardt & Eichner 1997-1999a:19f.).

[O.B.]

nom./acc. sg. n. or gen. pl.	przzẽ	TL 44a.28 (Xanthos)
acc. pl. c.	przis	TL 26.10 (Tlos)
dat./loc. pl.	przze	TL 29.3 (Tlos)
	p[rz]ze	TL 44a.34 (Xanthos)
unknown	przze[	TL 44a.33 (Xanthos)

The analysis of przzẽ is not certain. The form is attested in a damaged line reading ezeze : me przzẽ : kumã : me=ti[. Schürr & Dönmez 2015a:135f. argue that the form should be analyzed as a gen. pl. qualifying kumã, i.e. ‘the kumã of the foremost’. Conversely, Neumann 2007a:287 tentatively equates przzẽ : kumã with Gk. πρóθυμα, προκατάργματα, προτέλεια ‘Voropfer’, reading the form as nom./acc. sg. n. (thus also in DLL:52).

The attestation przze[ is not easily restorable. The form could conceivably be either abl./instr. or dat./loc. pl.

[O.B.]

Note the non-geminate -z- in przis on TL 26.10. The form is most likely a misspelling of przzis on account of all other attestations having geminate -zz- (van den Hout 1995b:115).

[O.B.]

The meaning ‘foremost’ for Lyc. A przze/i- is largely consensual since the detailed treatment by Houwink ten Cate 1965a:22-24, although the original semantic assignment as such is found already in Torp 1900a:4 (thus also in Bugge 1901a:17, Meriggi 1937a:512 n. 2, Gusmani 1960b:509, Laroche 1979b:349, Shevoroshkin 1979a:179, Starke 1990a:65, HED PA:109, Schürr & Dönmez 2015a:35f., DLL:52, Neumann 2007a:287). On TL 26.10, we find the sequence plade tijas : przis : sej epris. It is clear that both przis and epris agree in the acc. pl. with the pronoun tijas. The adjectives przze/i- and epre/i- constitute an antonymic pair parallel to Hitt. ḫantezzi- and appezzi-, i.e. ‘foremost and hindmost’, where epre/i- is radically connected to appezzi- and a perfect cognate to Luw. /appara/i-/. While ḫantezzi- is unrelated to przze/i-, the Lycian form is radically cognate to Hitt. parā ‘forth’ (HED PA:109). The relationship between przze/i- and pri ‘forth, in front’ is completely analogous to that between hrzze/i- ‘upper’ and hri ‘up, on’.

The meaning ‘Persian’ for Lyc. A przze/i- (Savelsberg 1878a:130f.) is outdated. The Lycian word for ‘Persian’ is parzza-.

[O.B.]

Lyc. A przze/i- is an i-mutating adjective. It is constructed with the local suffix -ze/i-, for which cf. hrzze/i- ‘upper’.

[O.B.]

1. przzidi(je)-

For the lemma head see Lyc. pri.