arus-

This lexeme is attested on three inscriptions. TL 44 is the pillar of Xanthos, 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 1997-99a:19f.). N 320 is the Letoon trilingual inscription, most commonly dated to 337 BCE, the first year of the Achaemenid king Arses, during the reign of the Carian satrap Pixodaros (Badian 1977a:49f, Bryce 1986a:48f, Keen 1998a:10, Wagner 2011a:156). TL 45 is a Greek-Lycian bilingual inscription, also dated to the reign of Pixodaros, ca. 340-335/334 BCE (Wagner 2011a:151).

[O.B.]

nom. sg.	arus	N 320.6 (Xanthos)
nom. sg. (?)	arus[	TL 45b.1 (Xanthos)
acc. sg.	arusñ	TL 44b.6 (Xanthos)
		TL 44c.16 (Xanthos)

The attestation on TL45b is cut off immediately following the final consonant. It is consequently not assured that this is a nom. sg. form. Eichner 2005a:26f. entertains the possibility that arusñ on TL 44b.6 is a gen. pl. form. While this is conceivable on formal grounds (cf. the e/i-stem ending -ẽ with a nasal), a gen. pl. in -ñ finds no precedent (see Schürr 2017-2018a:272), whereas an acc. sg. form arusñ does (TL 44c.16, declension confirmed by agreement to tideimi ehbi ‘his son’, see Meaning).

[O.B.]

On the basis of the trilingual, where the word corresponds to Aramaic bʿly ‘the citizens of‘, Lyc. arus- is most commonly assigned the collective meaning ‘citizenry’, ‘freie Bürgerschaft’, vel sim. (thus Carruba 1977a:285f., Laroche 1979c:62, Heubeck 1981a:161, HED A:120, Bryce 1986a:92, Starke 1990a:69, Hajnal 1995a:186, Cau 2003b:52 n. 4, DLL:5, Neumann 2007a:24, Melchert 2014d:205, Oreshko 2019a:107). Note that the specific notion of ‘citizenry’ referred to by arus- is not entirely consensual (e.g. per Carruba 1979b:90 ‘comunità di nobili’, per Laroche 1979c:62 ‘citoyens’, per Heubeck 1981a:161 ‘Gesamtheit der freien Bürger’, etc.).

Line 16 of TL 44c contains the phrase tideimi ehbi arusñ. On the basis of tidemi ehbi ‘his son’ agreeing in case and number with arusñ, Schürr 2014b:16 and Eichner 2005a:26 n. 145 argue that Lyc. arus- could also refer to a singular individual rather than a collective. According to Schürr, this also holds for the attestation on N 320.6. Eichner further argues that arus- ‘freie Bürgerschaft’ may implicitly refer to Xanthians specifically. Pending further evidence, the word has been assigned the meaning ‘citizen(ry)’ here, capturing both the singulative and the collective interpretation.

[O.B.]

Lyc. arus- is a synchronic s-stem of the common gender.

The derivational base of arus- is still a contested matter. The two main hypotheses postulate a base either in *eru- (cf. Luw. aru- ‘high’, thus e.g. Carruba 1979b:90f., Schürr 2014b:18, phonologically most plausible per Neumann 2007a:25) or Lyc. arawa- ‘freedom’ (Hajnal 1995a:186, Mottausch 2011a:75, Eichner 2005a:26 n. 145, Melchert 2014d:206, most semantically plausible per Neumann 2007a:25). A less popular view in recent literature is that arus- is derived directly from *ara- ‘companion’ (cf. Hitt. ^LÚarā-, Laroche 1979c:62f., Heubeck 1981a:161, most recently Oreshko 2019a:116).

Lycian nominal stem formation in -s- is still etymologically obscure. The two main hypotheses connect stems in -s- to Luwian stems in -nt- (most popular, thus in Carruba 1977a:287, Laroche 1979c:62, Heubeck 1981a:161, Starke 1990a:69, Hajnal 1995a:186, Mottausch 2011a:75, Neumann 2007a:24) or -sḫa- (Melchert 2014d:205f.). Oreshko 2019a:116 postulates an etymologically improbable collective suffix in -us.

[O.B.]