MetkaFurl<m 
Ljubljim.a 
CDO 809 •. 198-.-7-03 
The foH.o!Ving cofttribu.t:i,on_ offers a :p.~w- etymology , of i;he 
r Hitti te -~erm ffitelpi"'.'" which crui through _ IE root . _ ++HJSelep-
be reiated 'to IE +HJH.p-, +Hlun- tifox,-wol±'; cat 1~: The re-
latiori. indicates that the old e:x:pression for namin.g - of:te-
. ------- - . --- +.---- +·-- ---- ·---
rings to the gods _is hidden-in tll.e3E form.s: HW.tP:-:; fil:BE_-. 
-- The etJlllOl()gy of the Hi tti-i;e :g~elpi-:- _,( adj.) has since Hro-
zn;Y 1 s relation_to IE +g~elbh- 11womb, young o~e 11,cf. Oin<l.g~:­
bha- ~ 1m9ther' ~. b~~yn, Av. garawa-., "idem11 , Gr. cSiA~oC.:J "you.ng 
pig", OHG kalb 11 calf111 , remaj,.ned.on·weak pl:t9netic @d .seman.-
tic basis. 
· Also later attempts., cf. the :relation to OHG welf , ~•you.ng 
·,.".---· 
dog, young.one 112 ·and_the relation to_Arm. xe3:b "veget;able 
tissue 11 3,., have remained. insufficient for they _have not ta:-. 
ken account of. the __ results of the laryngeal- tll.eory which ju-::. 
s:tifia9ly rejects :;Hr9zny 1 s pqstulate: JUttite ?:-- and S~"'."- from 
4 
I]; -~t,turals- •. 
. Hitt •. a~elpi- (adj .)_ 11young,- tender, cute, fresh11 - which, 
according to Goetze5:_ a substantivised adj •. mealling . _"young a-
nimalll while according to the latest discqveries of the Hitt-w-
text Instructions for Temple.:. officJal~ more likelY defini11g --
11 first~frui ts 11- and 11 :f.'irstlings 116 ,is a_ term used by the Hi-, 
ttita for de_scribing the most positive f~ature.s _of live- and_ 
45.5 
unlive nature, for they, by using a substantivised. form o:f 
a~elpi-, named their vegetable and animal sacrifice for the 
gods. 
Considering the fact that no clear' examples to verify 
ili.tt. -alC- f~om IE +-elC- are to be found7 the Hitt. i-stem 
ad;ective hue1pi- should be reconstructed as +;.ruelp-i..;. 
U V#\ - ft _....,.. __ 
In the above mentioned Eitt. term there's hidden :!:E root 
++-- 1 +H 'l +-- l' "'t d .ti~e ep-, }}e p-, .ti~ ep- · en er, cute, fre<::h_, yo:m:;, [?eau-
tiful". The initial · lar;yngeal cs.n as ::;-irothetic vo\7el be shocm 
in Gr. and Arm. 
The reconstructed · root ser::antically and pllonetically cor-
responds to the one noted by Oštir8 in.J:~rrn. ~ "tenero,te-
nero e dolce, molle, morbido, soave, piacevole". Onthe basis 
of. the recon3truction +uolpro-: froIJ IE root +~olep- he lin-
" e .. 
ked the Arm. form v1ith Lat. lenidus "niedlich , zierlich, 
allerliebst", ~' -oris ''Feinheit, Anmut-, heiter Witz 11 9 
andLith• ~ 11weichlich,·verzartelt 11 • The relation:between 
IE +H~elep- and Arm• · golar and the above mentioned Lat. and 
Lith. forms is very appealing. The initia1·1aryn.geal does 
not exclude it, for it is known that IE +u- as well . as IE. 
n 
+H~- were shifted into Arm. ~-· Cf. for the former Arm. gitem 
"know" from IE·+Jteid- "know" and Arm• gini "wine" from IE 
+~oino- "idetn1110 and for the later A...""ID.. gelmn "wool, fleece", 
Hitt. €-~lana-, ·both from IE +H~el(e)-11 ; .Arm. ~ "is", Hitt. 
!J.~išO: "live"; Goth. wisan, all from IE +H~es- "be, dwell~ li-
ve1112. The question arises wether Oštir's reconstruction of 
the'Arm~ word can be justified. IE +-E_-, +-_!-, +-k- after 
456 
nasals and liquids correspond to Arm. -:e_-, -2:-, -~-13. 
golar should therefore probably be reconstructed as 
Arm. 
+uol-
n 
8 ro-14• The relation between .Arm. golar and IE root ++H~elep­
is therefore vague. It does not, however, prevent us from re-
lating Lat. and Lith. forms to this root. 
The reconstructed root ++Huelep- in some vowel alternation .., 
with a prothetic vowel which points to +H corresponds to IE 
expressions reconstructed by Pokorny15 +~tP-, with metathesis 
+~- which in most IE languages mark the fox, as well as the 
wolf and the cat. 
Gr. 1A~tr"J ~ ( f.) , gen. aAwtrf Jc.o') "fox" must be recon-
structed as +H~lop-ek'-· The early dissimilatory falling of 
di6ama should of course be accounted of. This in Gr. is not a 
sole example. Compare Gr.Hom. ff-Et.o , cf. Oind. vamiti,Lat. 
voraere, Li~h. vemti; Gr.Hom. 'lr~i) , gen.'ircU.b~ 11boy" instead 
of + 'lrd..tl~ , gen. 'lr~ftdo)16• 
Short 2-grade of IE root +H~ep- can be seen in Lith. lape 
11 fox 11 • The same vowel grade is found in OPr. ~ 11 fox 11 and 
Lett. ~ "idem". Lettic -~- is probably from IE +-~- which 
e.an be found in Lat. volpecula, though with a bure vowel gra-
de of the same root. Schulze17 thought of syncope when men-
tioning the Lett. form which accordingly may indicate IE form 
+H~tlop-ek' - or H~lop-ek 1 - ? 
Lat. volPes "fox" pointing to a bare vowel grade is origi-
nally an ~-stem with a secondary nom. -s as vate-s 11prophet 1~~ 
Perhaps Goth. wulfa "wolf", OHG wolf, ASa.x. ~­
be related to IE +Huelep-. The majority of scholars 
" 
457 
should 
see in 
these Germanic forms the starting form +ulk~os19 while Zupi-„. 
tza20 saw inthem the IE form +ulpos. Such reconstructed Ger• 
no 
manic forms can be related to MP.ers. gur;pak "domestic cat" .Li-
den21 here assumed an Arian starting point +urpa- comparing 
1\0 
it to Lith. vilnišYs "wild cat". Iran.-Ba1t. +~tpo- origi-
nally should have meant "wild cat" c:.nd only secondarily in 
P.ers. "domestic cat". 
aluesu. "fox" Frisk22 saw a perfect In. Arm. alues, gen. 
parallel to Gr•JA0)1Th} .~ "idem". p;y relating these two he pro-
bably didn' t take into account Schulze' s reconstruction + d..t -
AwtrE.I{.... Such starting· Gr. form cannot be related to Arm. al-
ues. Arm. equivalent to Gr. +o{.fAw'!rE.J.<..- should begin with i-
nitial 15-. About .Arm. f;;- from IE +}t_ or +:n~- see the above 
mentioned remarks in the text •. The Arm. form should be recon-
structed as +Hlupek'o.,... Thematic·form of IE +Hlup"'.'"e~- is con-
di tioned by the rule about Armenian accent, cf. Arm. ~ < 
+ . , ':v 23 + 
IE ebheret, Oind .• abha::-at, Gr. e<pE.~€. • IE -E,- in mid-vo-
wel position tb.rough + -E!!- pa~sed into Arm. -J1-., cf. Arm. ew , „ 
"and, alsci" from IE +~, Oind. ~ "also, then", Gr~EVI. ;Arm. 
hoviv "shepherd" from IE +o~i-pa24 • After the falling of pre-
accent -~-, cf. Arm. orcam "vomite" < +orucam25, tile li.rm. J1 
caused the change of Armo- -1- into -l-.• The initial Arm. · a-
is a vocalised laryngeal +g~ cf. Gr. -J.A~rr- frJ ~ and Hi tt. S-~e~-
&-· 
Av. · ~"'.' "vJeasel" according to the general opinion but 
"fox" according to the latest discoveries, as liofmann26 assu-
mes from the texts and reconstructs it as +lune ---- (cf. Lat. 
458 
+~), is also related to IE +Hlup-. 
Av. ~- "fox11 is an i-stem with its starting forµi +lu-
12!-·· Lat. ~· 11wolf" shpuld also be :i::ncluded here.The later 
should be regarded as a form. inherited from IE +HluP- and not 
27 as the one taken over from Sab. • The same vowel alternation 
of the root .prob-a.bly contain Kimr. llywarn ".foxn, OCorn. lou-
~'. lli:;l3ret. louarn28 o Oin<i.• loua§a.,.. nrox, jackal" and Av. 
-
raopi;... 11 id.em 11 point to a. vrddhi form of the IE _+Hlun-. . ·-
Owing to the appearance in the above mentioned expre-
ssions. f:.or fox, a wolf anC. a :cat of the same .root attested in 
Hitt. huelpi-, Lat. lenidus, leuos, -,oris, Lith. _lenus, there ,„, --
is a need .;t;o have a' closer look. at the role of· ·these ·.animals 
with Indoeuropeans •. The original meaning of IE +H1;tlp.,.., +Hl:up-
-- --
is nyoung, tender, cute, fresh11 • Here a. hypothesis forces it-. 
self tha:t all these above mentioned forms do notpoint to. an 
old IE expression for naming the beast as Pokorn;y29 assumed 
but they re:veal one of the oldest expressions for naming of-
ferings of Indoeuropens. It therefore reveals an old sacral 
role of the fox, the wolf and the cat. The reason for the to-
tal loss of traces of thisrole should be looked for in the 
break- through of new ideas or religions which all wanted to 
supress the old spirit and offering connected with it. Ukr. 
pohanin 11wolf 11 besides npagan; the one who is impure",c.f. :E2,-, 
ha.ft "impurity, corruption, filthiness 11 , probably taken over 
from Lat. paganus, clearly points to the abov.e mentioned hy-
pothesis. 
Indoeuropean lexica shows that Indoeuropeans o.ften named 
. . 
459 
their tributes using a term 11young; chaste; without being 
added to; what is fresh; cute, tender"or with a superlative 
"beautif'ul". When the tribute was abandoned this term only 
marked a concrete sacrificial object that is a sheep, a pig, 
a horse.etc. 
Thus how from OHG adj. ~- "fresh" anOGH noun friscing, 
translated in same cases as "hostia victima holocaustum 11 3° ' ' . ' 
was derived. At the same time the same term is often used to 
mark a pig and a sheep31 • IJHG vriscing means only "young 
sheep or young pig" a."YJ.d also "tax". 1lodern German Frischling 
has reta.in.ed only a non sacral· meaning "wild boar". 
A similar principle can be found in .Slav. +pr~sn'.b +"fresh, 
row, without addition". A derivati.on +onresn'.bk'.D; cf. ORuss. 
oPresn'.Dk'.b with its meaning "hostia" beside "unleavened bread" 
Slov. dial. nresmec "Easterbread" originally probably meant 
+"sacrifice, the thing which is pure, nothing is added to it'~ 
Also OHG ~ "sacrificial anirnal" 1 ASax. tiber "idem", 
tifer, Goth. tibr "sacrifice 11 32 , ON"or. tifu.rr "god"33 , A.rm. 
tvar "-ram" from +dfp- most. likely indicates the above shown 
semantic chain. Perhaps one should see in Pokorny's 
struction +dfn-34 < + dei( e )p- the IZ root + deiA· ( e)-
- n ----
.recon-
"hell 
5lanzen, schimmern, scheinen", cf. ORG zeiz "zart, unmutig113? 
To . the German form.s LIHG ungezibere, I:.Todern German Ungezie.fer 
"vermin" or "unreines, nicht zum Opfer geeignetes 
rnust also be related • 
The same principle of marking can be observed also in Hitt. 
uzušupna (nom.-acc.n.pl.) < +šuppaka "cultic pure meat" from 
460 
šuupi- "pure 11 37. 
The hypothesis that in the semantic chain in the princi-
p le of naming sacrifice to the gods realizes i tsel.f as a term 
marking a concrete sacrificial object, while the beginning of 
the same chain point.s to the quali ty of the sacrificial ob-
ject is also illustrated by Norv. sau "sheep", Swed. so,ONor. 
saud:r "idem". These markings are phonetically identical with 
Goth. saups 
Oisl. s,j 6d:'a 
"sacrifica". All these term.s must be related to 
"boil, cook 11 , Asa.~. seo<tan, Eng. seethe, OHG .~ 
dan "boil" which all correspond to IE root +seu-t- 11boil, mo-
ve quickly11 38• The above shown semantic chain points to an 
old pagan offering of cooked mutton39• After abandoning the 
sacrificing the term with its meaning "sacrifice" or ·"cooked 
mutton" was given a completely non sacral, concrete mea-
ning ."sheep". 
Pokorny assumed the IE +ulp-, +lun- to be original forms ,... -
for nami!l.g thebeast.'Zupitzall-o shared the same opinion, for 
he saw in these form.s the original meaning "the one . who 
tears" and therefore connected +ulp-, +lup- beside +ulk:Jl--„. no 
with IE root +uel(a)-, c.f. Lat. vello "rup.fen, zupfen,raufen~ 
" 
The central meaning of IE +Huelep- is "fox". This in ori-
n 
gi:q.al home of the Indoeuropeans probably didri't arouse ;t'ear, 
above all one cannot assume her greed for .fovd. This could 
happen much later. Dating from the same period are probably 
. . 
also single linguistic 11tabuistische Umbildungen" asPokorny 
expressed himself. Riegler41 also spoke o.f the mythical and 
folcloric role of the fox as well as Peuckert42, but ·both 
461 
saw in it a demonic power, arousing fear in man. Tabuist.ic 
expressions for the.fox in different IE languages do not re-
ject their statements, but this, probably, is not the origi-
nal role of the f ox. It is not a mere coincidence that the 
citation used by Grimm43 to shdw a horse as a sacrificial a-
nimal and with it the man's irresistible greed for consuning 
horse's meat which, at the time of Christianity was stric-
tly forbidden, testii'ies in favour of the fox. It seems that 
her meat was equallY: esteemed as that .of the horse' s. But the 
peoples wouldn't have esteemed fox's meat if the fox had a-
roused in them such.fear as isgenerally attributed to her; 
"Hieronymus adv.- ·Jov. i:ib. 2. (ed. basil. 1553.2, 75): Sar-
matae, Quadi, Vandali et innumerabiles aliae gentes equorum 
et vulpium carnibus delectantur". A citation which points to 
the consumptiom of cat's meat which runs:"Otto friscing 6,lo: 
audiat, quod Pecenati et hi qui Falones vocantur crudis. et 
immundis carnibus, utpote e.quinis et catinis usque hodie. 
vescuntur" must also be understand in the same context. 
'The. wolf as well as . the fox and the cat must have arous.ed 
in the mind of Indoeuropean man a glowing strength and, owing 
that; an esteemed animal. From .this originates also an old 
de sire for identification wi th him, qf. pers.onal nouns such 
as Lat. Vlu(ius), ~' Luuus, Luuillus etc.; OHG Wolf (e.g. 
'.:iolf Zenebus, noted in 1424, who was a knight, as well as 
Wolf . .!• Stain, noted i.n 1291), Gal. AOllJE.~V(.Ol etc. 
And last but not least the legend· about the beginning . of 
the Roman empire shows that the wolf originally in the mind 
462 
of the Indoeuropean man was not a demonic destructive animal 
44 as it is generally assumed • 
The previous arguments do not finally define the sacral 
role of the fo:x:, the wolf and the cat. A firm.er decision a-
bout this role would demandan interdisciplinary research • 
... 
My thanks are due to professors Bojan Cop and Varja.·· Cvet-
ko-Orešnik for critical obser\1'ations and to Blaga Juvan for 
translation. 
References: 
l. Hrozny, Di~ .Sprache der Hethiter 111 ref. 5. 
2. Von Brandenstein by Tischler, Heth.itisches et;ymologisches 
Glossar II 260. 
3. Schultheiss by Tischler, l.c. 
4-. :aowadays owing to laryn.gealii:;itically oriented scholars, 
above all Kuryiowicz, Cuny, Beµveniste, Couvreur and a 
couple of younger scholars, it is obvious that the 
of the Hitt. g is to be searched for in IE phoneme 
contemporary linguistics defines as a laryngeal 
origin 
· which 
without 
knowing its real phonetic value. A great many etymologies 
which are based on the above mentioned Hrozny's 
are absolete nowadays. On the other hand a lot of 
equation 
Hitti te 
terms are still waiting for their real parallels. Also 
such etymologies as those of later which all, with slight-
ly different, but in fact the same implications, continued 
Hrozny's hypothesis, are at present no longer verified. A 
good synthetical. review of the history of the_search for 
Hitt. h is well presented in Polome's article in Language, 
~ .. . 
. XX'vIII (1952) 444fol. So nowadays it is perfectly clear 
that Hitt. halzil 11 calls 11 should be derived from .. +Hlt-e-v . 
which is related to Lat. lessus. "Totenklage 11 < +let-tu-s 
y . y 
(Cop, Linguistica X (1970) 96fol.). Before Cop a slightly 
diff erent attempt was made by Jurat in his Vocabulaire e-
tymologique de la langlie hittite (Limoges 1942) .2o. Juret, 
463 
however did not take the vowel alternation in the verb 
stem into account and reconstructed iiitt. halzai as +J&l: 
± (A,=lar;igeal=~) and related it t~ Got~. la)on "call" 
< +Al-et-. \;ith this Hrozny' s relation of the Hitt. 
halzal. in Die Sprache der Hethiter 4o ref. 5 to OHG, MHG 
kallon "chat, gibber", ChSl glas9, r;;;lasiti, Czech. w.A: 
sati "call" as well as Pedersen's comparison · with Gr. 
KctAiw "call'1 (Hittitisch und die andere . indo~mropa­
ischen Sprachen 121) remain merely a 'document about tl:ie 
development of the Hittite linguistics. 
5. Goetze, Ancient Near Eastern Texts2 (1955) 2o7fol. 
6. li:iilgrom, JAOS 96 (1976) 575fol. 
7. Polome, Language XXVIII (1952) 455 only gives a hypothe-
sis about this sequence, choising an inapropriate example 
because Hitt. halkiš "seed" with the initial laryngeal 
cannot only im;ly the reconstruction +Belki-, cf. Hitt. 
e-arki- :•white" from +Harr;'-i- related to -Gr. a_~t6~ "whi-
te, shining", Oirid. arjuna- "lic:it, weiss" . C Tischler, 
o. c. I 177) • Recently a rule about IE + -~- to Hi tt. -iii.-
prior the resonant + consonant has been postulated, c.f .oe-
ttinger, Die Stammbildung des hethitischen Verbums 139 
ref. 11. But there are no clear examples for the sequen-
ce treated above. 
8. Oštir, '\'i'Črter und Sachen IV (1912) 217. 
9. It seems that also Slav. +len~, as vrddhi form -- . 
with Lat. ~' -oris by !.iachek, Etymolbgicey 
jazyka českeho2 327, is related to the terms 
-- + above. A different account to Slav. len~ was 
linked 
slovnik 
mentioned 
made by 
ISuhlenbach-Endzelin, Lettisch-deutsches \"iorterbuch II 410 
and Berneker, Slavisches etymologisches 7,orterbuch I 711. 
Both compare Slav. +len~ with Lett. lainns "affable, 
friendly" (a far semantic side ! ) • Otherwise Ji.1eringer, 
Worter und Sachen V 149fol., who relates to Oind. linta-
"the one/which sticks", Gr. A.1'.:irol "fat", Goth. bileiban 
"leave", Lith. limml "-stick". 
lo. For both see Ueillet, Esquisse d'une Grammaire comparee 
464 
de l'armenien classique2 158. 
11. Peters, Untersuchungen zur Vertretung der indogerm.ani-
schen Laryngale im Griechischen 41. 
12. Pokorny, TI?:ll 1170. Pokorny' s reconstruction of IE root 
+ues- is corrected owing to the recent lar;yngealistic 
.a....._ 
researches. ·· 
13. Meillet, Esquisse2 31 .• ... 
14. Cop, personally. 
15. Pokorny, IEW 11?9· 
16. Schulze, KZ XLV 287fol.; Specht, KZ LIX 118. A different 
. account · of the . fal.ling . of .. digama in, Gr .• lf1.w can . be seen 
in Schwyzer, Griechische Grammatik I 222 re:f., 5. 
17. sc11u1ze, l. c. . 
18. Hofmann, Aufsatze zur Indoiranistic II 488. 
19. Kluge-Mitzka, Etymologisches WČrterbuch der deutschen 
Sprache17 869. . 
2o. Zupitza, Die germ~schen Gutturale 16. 
21. Liden, KZ LVI 189. 
22. Frisk, Griechisches etymologisches Wčrterbuch I 83. 
23. Meillet, Esquisse2 19. 
24. Meillet, o.c. 31. 
25. Meillet, o.c. 19. 
26. Hofmann, l.c. 
27. Osteoff, IF IV 278. 
28. So Cop, personally. Otherwise Pokorny, IE'!I 1179. 
29. Pokorny, l.c. 
30. J.Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie I3 44-fol. 
31. J.Grimm, l.c. 
32. Pokorny, IEW 222. 
33. Kluge-i'Jitzka, Ewn17 806. 
34. Pokorny, IEW 222. 
35. Pokorny, l.c. 183. 
36. Kluge-.rJitzka, :s.vn17 806. 
37. Friedrich, Hethitisches Worterbuch 198. 
38. Falk-Torp, Norwegisch-danisches etymologisches 
buch II 952; Pokorny, IEW 914. 
465 
wčter-
3g. Conclusion by Falk-Torp, l.c. 
~ ! ;-c~W\'~~~~~, 1. C• 
4l:~Riegl~~·;'"·Archivium Romanicum zyrr (1939) 4o.5fol .• 
4~~ .~euck.~;-t-. ... ,Hwidbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens III.179• "c..c.„. „, _ _,_ ~'-' ~.( 
4~ .i: V-~ 1tf:.~ffllfr~r:x~ 1 c • 41 · . 
44. Haverš, Neuere Literatur zum Sprachtabou 41. 
Povzetek 
+ + HETITSKO !}}telpi- "l'ILAD, NEZEN, SVEZ" IN IDE. H~lp-, Hlup-
~:LCT€1 '".:C~' 'l ~c..t.b .A C C. l .. 
,::ep:fi$1:Sev~:te~a-l3.~a novo 
ni- "mlad ··A:ež-~nc;: svežu - ' ' ' 
etimologijo hetitskega l'eksema huel-
. ····.,· .. ~ 
ki ga je možno prek ide~ korena 
+Hgelep- povezati z lat. lenidus "niedlich, zierlich, aller:.. 
liebst" lenos '"?oris "weichlibh. verzartelt" in z ide.izrazi ' ___, - ' 
zateti:l'ij~:ilč'cf, voliaf riiaČko", kf jih je Pokorny rekonstruiral 
+RtP-, +~-. Povezava sili v domnevo, da se Y fde. tvorbah 
+Hi}!P-, +Hlup- skriva staro poimenovanje za darove bogovom. 
'1";"7:''7 
~- '-••• !„ 
466