palawi(t)-

The sole attestation of the lexeme comes from a New Hittite letter.

[E.R.]

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv.

[E.R.]

The relevant sentence as part of a discussion about establishing a “tablet of oath” between the sender and the addressee of the letter runs as follows: ^(9’)... pa-la-wi₅-ti-wa ku-it ^(10’) [^GIŠpa]n sud-ši dib-ši-ia-wa “Why are you drawing the [b]ow for/to/in palawi(t)- and hold (it)?” (modified from Alexandrov & Sideltsev 2009a:60). It is impossible to determine the meaning of the lexeme, which can denote a body part in which the bow is held (‘palm’, thus very tentative Melchert apud Alexandrov & Sideltsev 2009a:67) or one that serves as the target for the arrow, or any kind of abstract notion like ‘threat’, ‘death’, and if the holding the bow is a metaphor, even ‘slander’ (Alexandrov & Sideltsev 2009a:66; with a detailed discussion of the text and references). Miller 2008c:121-124 does not provide a translation. The context being inconclusive, no interpretation is attempted here either.

[E.R.]

Without meaning and etymology, it is only possible to state that the lexeme ends in the Luwian suffix -i(t)- used to derive neuter nouns.

[E.R.]

On account of the gloss wedge marking and the derivation with the suffix -i(t)-, there can be no doubt regarding the Luwian origin of the word; cf. its occurrence in DCL:172.

[E.R.]