trep-

There is a large word family in Luwian, which belongs to a tarp-root meaning ‘to replace, be a substitute’, which has always been etymologically obscure (see HEG T, D: 208-210). Kimball 2015a:65 suggests carefully a connection to the root *trep- ‘to turn’, which is semantically unsupported. A connection to the root ‘to tread, step’ is semantically possible in the sense of ‘to tread in place of someone’ (cf. German vertreten). Thanks to the Lycian and Lydian highly probable cognates (see especially under Lyd. tarpla-), we know that the root ended in -p-, which would allow for a connection to the PIE root *terp-/trep- ‘to tread’, which would have escaped the secondary (analogical) lenition seen in PLuw. *trób-/tr̥p-´.

The well-attested adjective CLuw. tarpālla/i- comes from an adjective in *-é-lo- likely derived from an unattested noun *tarpa(/i)- (a derivation from Luwian tarp(i)- ‘vital force’ is semantically awkward and therefore rejected here).

For a Proto-Luwic formation in *-é-leh₂-, see PLuw. *tr̥pélā-.

For the PIE root *trep- ‘to turn’ in Anatolian that is here separated from the root for ‘to tread’, see Hitt. teripp-^(mi) ‘to plow’ and possibly tarpanuti(ya)- and Lyc. trepe.

[D.S.]