kaprdoki-^(d)

This lexeme occurs once in a burial inscription that was found in Sardis and is datable to the late 6^th-early 5^th century BCE.

[I.Y.]

As seen in Gusmani 1964a:142, this verbal form occurs in the apodosis of a curse formula. Gusmani (ibid.) also observed that this is a unique case where the perpetrator functions a subject of such a passage and tentatively suggested the translation ‘to pay’. This contextual definition seemingly clashes with the etymological connection between the Lydian form and Hitt. kapirt- ‘mouse’, offered in Oettinger 1995b:45 with reference to a personal communication of Michael Weiss (on the etymology of the Hittite noun, see Kroonen 2016a). If this etymology holds water, then the primary meaning of kaprdoki-^(d) was probably ‘to steal’ (cf. typologically German mausen ‘id.’). An additional argument in favor of this meaning is the Greek infinitive σκαπερδεῦσαι occurring in a Hipponax fragment, where the translation ‘to steal’ makes an excellent sense (Sh. Hawkins 2013a:190-194). According to Melchert apud Oettinger (ibid.), this Greek form represents a loanword from Lydian.

This contradiction, however, can be resolved, if one observes that kaprdoki-^(d) is accompanied by the reflexive particle =τ in its only attestation. One can suggest that the curse is directed at the future owners of the grave. If they damage it in any way, they run danger of “stealing it from themselves”, i.e being no longer able to use it for their own burial.

Independent evidence for kaprdoki-^(d) ‘to loose, forfeit’ comes from Greek. Hesychius describes a game resembling a modern tug-of-war, where two men compete for the rope back-to-back “and anything difficult is called σκαπέρδα, and the one who loses is called σκαπέρδης” (Sh. Hawkins 2013a:190f.). In this case one can also surmise a borrowing from Lydian, although, just like in the case of σκαπερδεῦσαι, the source of borrowing is probably a prefixed verb (cf. the Lydian prefixes iš- and ši-). Thus both the meanings ‘to steal’ and ‘to lose, forfeit’ can be reconstructed for the Lydian stem in question based on the Greek evidence, but only the latter one is attested in the actual Lydian record. Nevertheless, the number of assumptions involved in developing this hypothesis implies its tentative character.      

[I.Y.]

The verbal i-stems derived from abstract nouns in -oka- and having the property of leniting the verbal ending in 3sg. pres. are explained in Melchert 1992a:47f. and Sasseville 2021a:241-250. The base of the derivation is presumably the unattested abstract noun *kaprdoka- meaning ‘theft (?)’.

[I.Y.]