naḫḫuwašša/i-

The word occurs only once, in a fragment of a birth ritual from the Tauriša tradition.

[E.R.]

(gen. adj.) nom. pl. c.

na-aḫ-ḫu-wa-aš-ši-en-〈zi〉

KBo 13.260 iii 7’

(CTH 766, NS)

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv. – The restoration of word-final -zi follows Starke 1985b:262. It is based on the other members of the list of nouns in -inzi or -ienzi (iii 6’-11’).

[E.R.]

Following CLL:153, most interpretations of the lexeme consider generally both agentive ‘fearsome, terrifying’ and patient-like ‘fearful, terrified’ (Shevoroshkin 1994a:142, HHw:109, EDHIL:592). Differently, Rieken 2004a:464f. favored the patientive reading, whereas Rieken & Yakubovich 2022a:275 opted for the agentive one, assuming in both cases a contrast between two groups, the ill and the strong. This becomes now obsolete through a new reading zi-i-in abl./instr. of ‘this’ (instead of zi-i-in-⸢za⸣, acc. pl. c. of ‘these’) at KBo 13.260 iii 5’, where two vertical scratches on the flaked surface of the tablet had been falsely interpreted as the traces of -za. With only one group involved, ú-ša-an-da must be an intransitive verb and is therefore most likely a cognate of CLuw. wāšu- ‘good’, HLuw. /usnuwa-⁽ⁱ⁾/ ‘to bless, to benefit’ etc., denoting ‘to prosper (?)’; cf. the relevant passage: ^(5’)ku-i-in-zi zi-i-in ^(6’)ú-ša-an-da a-la-aš-ši-in-zi ^(7’)na-aḫ-ḫu-wa-aš-ši-en<-zi> i-na-aš-ši-en-zi ^(8’)pa-ri-ia-an šar-ḫa-mi-in-zi ^(9’)an-na-ru-um-me-en-zi “those who prospered here – the ones related to alienation, fear, and illness, the extraordinarily courageous (literally: gutsy) ones (and) strong ones” (KBo 13.260 iii 5’-9’). In view of unambiguous annarummenzi ‘strong ones’, the agentive translation of naḫḫuwašša/i- ‘fearsome, terrifying’ is preferred here.

[E.R.]

CLuw. naḫḫuwašša/i- represents a (substantivized) genitival adjective in -ašša/i-. Its base *nahḫu(wa)- looks identical to that of the verb naḫḫūwa-⁽ⁱ⁾.

[E.R.]

For the lemma head see CLuw. naḫḫūwa-⁽ⁱ⁾.