/pasaya-/, pa-sa-iá-

This hapax is attested in a single inscription from Tabal, dating to c. 740-730 BCE.

[A.P.]

3sg. impv. act.

/pasayattu/

pa-sa-iá-tu-u-’

KAYSERİ, §18 (Tabal)

[A.P.]

The assigned meaning is based on that suggested by Oettinger 1979a:347f. for the probable Hittite cognate peššiye/a-^(mi) ‘to throw, cast aside’. He regards it as a compound verb with preverb pe-, and the same analysis is easily possible for the HLuw. verb (followed by Lehrman 1998a:151, 184, Melchert 1994a:133, Kimball 1999a:215, 391; cf. EDHIL:671). Hawkins 2000a:475 refrains from any interpretation beyond noting that its context suggests a punitive action.

The verb occurs in the multi-clausal apodosis of a curse formula at KAYSERİ, §18: ˹(“X˺”)á-pi-tá-pu-tu-wa/i-s[a]-pa-w[a/i-t]u ˹(m)u^?˺-[...-s]a pa-sa-iá-tu-u-´, approx. /apittapuTuwas=ba=wa=du mu-… pasayattu/, meaning ‘The apittapuTuwa- shall press … down for him (scil. the evildoer)!’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:473). Needless to say that the meaning cannot be contextually proven until further evidence is found.

[AH.B.]

From the attested form, it cannot be said with certainty which stem class this verb belongs to, but it is likely to be one in /-a-⁽ⁱ⁾/ (see Sasseville 2021a:340-342), if the root verb is the one matching Hittite šāi-/-i(ya)-^(ḫi) ‘to (im)press’ with a generalization of the strong stem, i.e. /pa-saya-⁽ⁱ⁾/. In any case, the stem formation would differ from that of Hittite peššiye/a-^(mi) ‘to throw, cast aside’, where a Luwian verb in /-i-^(ti)/ would be expected.

[AH.B.] [D.S.]