Venetic ekvopetaris and its Indo-European background

Georges-Jean Pinault (1)

1 Mondes Iranien et Indien - UMR 7528

The Venetic term ekvopetaris is found on speaking votive inscriptions, from 6th BCE onwards and refers ot the social rank of the buried person (man or woman). It is an adjective based on a former noun ekvopeta-*, which refers mots probably to a member of the ruling class. Besides the first member, which reflects obviously the Venetic noun for 'horse', there is no consensus about the interpretation of the whole compound. After reviewing the previous hypotheses, it is proposed to analyse it as *ekwo-pētā- and to connect it with the Proto-Indo-European phrase *(h1)eḱwo-m/ns peh2- ‘to watch over, take care of horses’. This was a verbal governing compound, with marking of substantivization. Its meaning complies with the well-known importance of horses in the culture of the Venetes.

Mots clés: nominal compounding; Venetic language; Indo-European etymology; Indo-European poetic phraseology; Indo-European morphology; Italic languages

Domaines: Linguistique

Georges-Jean Pinault. Venetic ekvopetaris and its Indo-European background. Wékwos. Revue d'études indo-européennes, 2016, 2, pp.179-193. ⟨halshs-01446325⟩