siraku

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Word
Language:	Raetic
Word type:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Attestation:	SL-2.1 (siraku:̣þurti) (1)

Commentary

Assuming that the form is Raetic, as indicated by the alphabet used, it is not otherwise attested in the Raetic corpus, but may qualify as an individual name in °u. It is not accompanied by the usual patronym in -nu, but see þurti and Raetic onomastics for alternative solutions. The auslaut °ku might be analysed as the ending of deverbal nouns -ku with an otherwise unattested verbal base sir(a)-, but deverbal nouns never occur in sentence-initial position.

Alternatively, the following Celtic etymologies have been suggested: Marstrander 1925: 51 f., expecting a Celtic name, compares serrancu in CIL XIII 90 and reads a nom.sg.m. n-stem Celtic PN in -u containing *sīr- 'long, lasting, constant'. For objections see Markey 2001: 110 f., who reads Celtic siragu < *sīr-agō(n) 'astral priest' with a Celtic vrddhied composition form *sīr- 'star' + nom.sg. n-stem *agō(n) 'priest'.

Compared with a Scythian PN *Sirakō by Altheim & Trautmann 1939: 43 (evidence see there).

Bibliography

Altheim & Trautmann 1939	Franz Altheim, Erika Trautmann, Vom Ursprung der Runen [= Deutsches Ahnenerbe, Reihe B], Frankfurt a.M.: Vittorio Klostermann 1939.
Markey 2001	Tom Markey, "A tale of two helmets: The Negau A and B inscriptions", The Journal of Indo-European Studies 29 (2001), 69–172.
Marstrander 1925	Carl Johan Sverdrup Marstrander, "Les inscriptions des casques de Negau, Styrie", Symbolae Osloensis 3 (1925), 37–64.