Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung.

Volume 59 (3), 341 345 (2006)

DOI: 10.1556/AOrient.59.2006.3.4

THE HITTITE NAME FOR GARLIC

KRZYSZTOF TOMASZ WITCZAK

University of d, Department of Linguistics and Indo-European Studies,

ul. Lipowa 81, PL-90568 d, Poland
e-mail: ktw@uni.lodz.pl

In this article the origin of Hittite uppiwahar onion (liter. pure garlic) is carefully discussed.
The author suggests that there were two different terms for garlic in the Indo-European languages:
the Indo-Hittite appellative *wsHxr0 (gen. sg. *usHxn0-s) belonged to the unproductive r/n-hetero-
clitic nouns and represented probably an archaic formation older chronologically than IE. *kermuso- /
*kremuso- (o-stem) garlic, onion. The Indo-Hittite term in question is reconstructed here for the
first time.
Key words: historical-comparative linguistics, Hittite, Anatolian languages, Indo-Hittite, Indo-Euro-
pean, Indo-Iranian languages, etymology, plant names.

Hittite uppiwahar(SAR) n. (r/n-stem) onion / Zwiebel (Friedrich 1991, p. 199) is tra-

ditionally treated as a linguistic calque of Sumerian sum-sikil onion (literally pure
garlic / reiner Knoblauch), cf. Hitt. uppi adj. rein, heilig, sakrosankt (= Sum. sikil
pure, clean / rein). This explanation was first given by Albrecht Gtze (JCS 1,
1947, pp. 318320) and accepted by most Hittitologists, including Hoffner (1974,
p. 75), Danka (1983, p. 166) and Friedrich (1991, p. 199). However, the suggested term
*wahar, gen. sg. *wahana n. garlic / Knoblauch is not separately attested in the
Hittite texts. As regards the original shape of the alleged Hittite name, one must recon-
struct the Anatolian heteroclitic r/n-stem neuter *wsHx-r0, gen. sg. *wasHx-n0-s by
analogy to the following two Indo-Hittite (IH.) or Indo-European (IE.) appellatives:
[1] IH. *H1sH2-r0 , gen. sg. *H1esH2-n0-s n. blood (Pokorny 1959, p. 343;
Delamarre 1984, p. 98; Puhvel 1984, pp. 305313; Mann 19841987, pp. 249250;
Mallory Adams 1997, p. 71), cf. Hitt. ehar, ihar, gen. sg. ehana n. blood, spe-
cifically dark (venous) blood, Luwian ahanu-want- bloody, Hieroglyphic Lu-
wian asharmi- bloody(?) (: Vedic sr0-g, gen. sg. asns n. blood, Skt. asram n.
id.; Gk. (Hesychian) h, q, , n. blood; Tocharian A ysr, B yasar blood
(< CT. *esr < IE. *sr < IH. *H1sHxr0 ); Arm. ariwn blood (from nom. sg.

0001-6446 / $ 20.00 2006 Akadmiai Kiad, Budapest

342 K. T. WITCZAK

*H1sHxr0, enlarged by means of the IE suffix *-in-); Latv. asins blood, Jatvingian
asi[n]ga id (as if from the oblique stem *H1esHxn0-), Lat. aser blood vs. sanguis
id. (the initial san- is derived from the oblique stem *H1esHxn0-).
[2] IE. *wsHx-r0, gen. sg. *wesHx-n0-s n. spring, spring-time (Pokorny 1959,
p. 1174; Delamarre 1984, p. 196; Mann 19841987, pp. 1526, 1529; Mallory Adams
1997, p. 504), cf. Gk. h, gen. sg. h n. spring; Lat. vr n. spring, spring-time
(in Greek and Latin the nominative stem is transferred also to the oblique stem);
Avestan vari loc. sg. im Frhling (< *wsHxr-i); Arm. garun spring-time; Lith.
vsara, vasar f. summer, Latv. vasara id. (the Baltic forms are derived from
nom. sg.); OInd. vasanta- n. spring-time; Old Church Slavic vesna f. spring-time,
Pol. wiosna id.. The derivation of the Hittite term ham(m)eha-, ham(m)ehant-
c. spring(-summer) from the root *wsHx is not impossible, but hardly certain (see
Puhvel 1991, pp. 6975).
Puhvel (1991, pp. 7475) suggests the connection between the Hittite term for
onion and the Indo-European name for spring, putting forward the following ar-
guments for the alleged connection (in this citation the references to the literature are
omitted and indicated by three dots in the brackets []):
The underlying r/n-system *weshar, *weshan- may survive with a-
coloration in suppi-washarSAR onion (q.v.) and its derivative suppiwa-
shanalli- (or suppa washanalli-), a compound copied (presumably via
Akkadian) from Sum. sum.sikil pure leek []. Curiously the main oc-
currences (KUB XXIX 7 + KBo XXI 41 Rs. 37 and 39 []) read ks-
wa suppiwasharSAR and kn sup[piw]asharSAR (i.e. qualified by an
animate nom. and acc. sg. pronoun) and hence reflect in origin a triple
compound suppi-washar-SAR pure spring-vegetable, with washar itself
subsequently shading over into spring green, green leek or the like
(the converse of Akk. du grass becoming spring), and in the process
taking on at least ad sensum animate gender.
Puhvels interpretation seems too conjectural. The Sumerian ideogram SAR (or
AR) denotes vegetable and it is a standard determinative added to the names of
garden products (Friedrich 1991, p. 290). Also the derivative uppiwahanalli- (with
no third element) seems to exclude Puhvels etymology deriving the second part of
the compound -wahar from IE. *wsHx-r0 n. spring(-time). I believe, however,
that the Hittite term for garlic, which was created in the same way as the Indo-Euro-
pean names for blood and spring, is an archaic appellative of Indo-Hittite origin.
What is more, Hitt. uppi-wahar n. onion (liter. pure garlic) is not an isolated
form, as it is possible to indicate a number of related forms in five or six different
Indo-European subgroups:
Indic: Skt. ua (m.) onion (lex.), u- (f.) name of a bulbous plant (Mo-
nier-Williams 1999, p. 220). Mayrhofer (1988, pp. 238, 281) gives only the heading
u- (evidently with the meaning hot / hei) and a standard reference to the root o
brennen, versengen (< IE. *eus- to burn). He treats the Sanskrit name for onion
presumably as a nominal form, derived from the adjective u- hot, warm, also

Acta Orient. Hung. 59, 2006

 THE HITTITE NAME FOR GARLIC 343

(lex.) pungent, acrid; sharp, active. Turner (1966, p. 112) seems correct in listing
these two Sanskrit forms separately.
Dardic: Khowar vn garlic < Dard. *un- (Turner 1966, p. 112, No. 2390;
Bailey 1985, p. 29);
Iranian: Pashto .a, !.a garlic (< Iran. *na-, according to Morgenstierne
1927, p. 13). It is worth emphasising that all the Indo-Iranian forms (Indic, Dardic,
Iranian) are based on the oblique stem *usn- (< IE. *us-H-n0-).
Italic: Lat. nio, -nis (m.) a kind of onion, Allium cepa L. (Andr 1985, p.
276), hence preserved in Fr. oignon onion, bulb and as a loan word in NBret. ognon-
enn onion, OE. ynne-leac onion, ME. unyon, E. onion id., Dutch dial. ui, pl.
juin, ajuin onion. The Latin form for onion was derived from the oblique stem
*usn- garlic by the suffix -in-. Note, that Arm. ariwn blood is a parallel, but not
identical formation, which was derived from the nominative sg. *H1sHxr0 blood
(> PArm. *ear > Arm. ar-) by means of the same suffix -in- (> Arm. -iwn).
Celtic (?): MIr. uinniun onion, Welsh wynwyn pl. onions (as if from Celt.
*usnin- rather than a loan word from Latin). The Celtic terms for onion may be
hardly borrowed from Latin in the historical times. They demonstrate the initial short
vowel *- and the geminate -nn-, whereas Latin realises the initial stem in a different
way (long - caused by the loss of -s- before the nasal and a single nasal -n-). It seems
probable that the Celtic and Italic forms originated during the so called Italo-Celtic
community.
Baltic (?): Lith. usns thistle, Cirsium, usnn (f.) thistles thicket, usne$!tas
(adj.) grown by the thistles. The Baltic nouns agree phonologically with the above-
mentioned forms (especially with the Indo-Iranian and Italo-Celtic term, derived from
the oblique form *usn-), but they differ semantically from the Hittite, Indo-Iranian
and Italo-Celtic terms for garlic; onion, thus they may be quoted here only with the
question mark.
The lexical material, taken from the Indic, Dardic, Iranian, Italic, Celtic and
Baltic languages, clearly demonstrates that the oblique stem was created on the zero-
grade root *usn- (< *usHx-n-). This observation allows us to reconstruct the Indo-
Hittite protoform *wsHxr0, gen. sg. *usHxn0-s. The full grade of the root seems to be
generalised in the Hittite term for onion. The appellative in question belonged evi-
dently to the unproductive r/n-heteroclitic nouns.
To the best knowledge of mine, the Indo-Hittite term for garlic, *wsHxr0
(oblique stem *usHxn0-), is reconstructed here for the first time. Such an archetype for
garlic, leek, onion does not appear in the standard Indo-European dictionaries
(Pokorny 1959 vacat; Buck 1949, p. 372, s.v. onion; Delamarre 1984 vacat; Mann
19841987 vacat; Mallory Adams 1997, p. 620, s.v. vegetables). It is not impossible
that the Indo-Hittite name in question derives from the Indo-European root *eus- /
*wes- to burn, also *us- (< IH. *H1eus- / *H1wes-, with a zero-grade root variant
*H1us-), as garlic, as well as onion, during its eating evokes a burning sensation.
Here I tentatively accept this explanation after Bailey (1985, p. 29) and Mayrhofer
(1988, pp. 238, 281), though there is no evident confirmation of this derivational pro-
cess.

Acta Orient. Hung. 59, 2006

344 K. T. WITCZAK

The second Indo-European term for onion, garlic, *kermuso- / *kremuso-,

though not attested in the Anatolian languages, seems to be archaic as well, though
relatively younger than its Indo-Hittite counterpart. It appears in Greek (Gk. -
, n. a kind of onion) and the north-western languages of the Indo-
European family (cf. Pokorny 1959, pp. 580581; Simon 2005, pp. 383385), namely
in Celtic (e.g. MIr. crem, Irish creamh, Welsh craf garlic), Germanic (e.g. OE.
hramsa, hramse garlic, E. ramson, Swed. rams, ramslk wild garlic, Allium ursi-
num), Baltic and Slavic (e.g. Lith. kremu f. wild garlic, Russ. , -
, f. wild garlic / Barenlauch, Allium ursinum, Pol. trzemucha, Slove-
nian remo and so on). Tatr (2002) suggests the existence of an Iranian cognate on
the basis of two premises: (a) possible Iranian native equivalents; (b) possible bor-
rowings in Turkish and Mongolian languages1. Simon (2005, pp. 385387) accepts
Iranian *sarma- (denoting artichoke, orach, turnip and other plants, not wild
garlic2) as a possible reflex of the Indo-European name for onion, garlic. It is highly
probable that the newly introduced term *kermuso- / *kremuso- onion, garlic re-
moved its older synonym *wsHxr0 onion, garlic in most Indo-European languages.
The older appellative was preserved in some peripherical languages like Hittite, San-
skrit, Khowar and Latin. It appears residually also in the Iranian and Celtic languages.
In Lithuanian the original semantics was changed (garlic > thistle) by influence of
a competition of the original plant name *wsHxr0 with its newly introduced synonym
*kermuso- / *kremuso-.

Abbreviations

Akk. = Akkadian; Arm. = Armenian; Az. = Azeri; Bur. = Buryat; Celt. = Celtic; Dard. = Dardic;
E. = English; Fr. = French; Gk. = Greek; Hitt. = Hittite; Hung. = Hungarian; IH. = Indo-Hittite;
IE. = Indo-European; Iran.= Iranian; Karakh. = Karakhanide Turkic; Kum. = Kumyk; Lat. = Latin;
Latv. = Latvian; Lith. = Lithuanian; ME. = Middle English; MIr. = Middle Irish; NBret. = New

1
In the Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages (Starostin Dybo Mudrak 2003,
pp. 1233 1234) Turkish *sarimsak garlic (cf. Karakh. sarmusaq, samursaq, Az. sarimsaG,
Turkm. sarimsaq, Sal. samsax, Uygh. samsaq, Kum. samursaq id.) and Mongolian *sar- denoting
Lilium tenuifolium (cf. WMong. sarana, Bur. harna, Ord. sarnaG) and turnip (cf. WMong.
sarmug, Kh. sarmag id.) are derived from Altaic *sera (~ *seru, *sero) a kind of garlic, cf. also
Manchu se} ulen wild garlic (as if from Tungus *sergu- or *ser} u-).
2
Simon (2005, pp. 385 387) quotes the following Iranian data: Khotanese srm- the
plant Basella cordifolia or B. lucida or B. rubra (Bailey 1979, p. 424); Hung. srma Ornitho-
galum sp. (as a loan word from an East Iranian dialect), NPers. sarm artichoke (hence Classical
Mongolian sarmu turnip), sarma orach, Atriplex hortensis (also salma and sarmak orach / -
, according to Stebline-Kamensky 1999, p. 312), sarma orach, a kind of ivy, Arabic(ised)
sarmaq orach, an herb, the herb all-heal. This lexical material may be augmented, cf. Shughni
srb turnip (Morgenstierne 1974, p. 75); Yazghulami sarm!g a kind of goosefoot / , Che-
nopodium botrys and pigweed / , Chenopodium album = Atriplex alba, perhaps also Wakhi
siwg a kind of goosefoot / , Chenopodium botrys (Stebline-Kamensky 1999,
p. 312). Unfortunately, none of these name means onion or garlic. Thus the suggested etymology
remains uncertain.
Acta Orient. Hung. 59, 2006
 THE HITTITE NAME FOR GARLIC 345

Breton; NPers. = New Persian, OE. = Old English; OInd. = Old Indic; Ord. = Ordos; PArm. = Proto-
Armenian; Pol. = Polish; Russ. = Russian; Sal. = Salar; Skt. = Sanskrit, Sum. = Sumerian; Swed.=
Swedish; Turkm. = Turkmenian; Uygh. = Uyghur; WMong. = Written Mongolian.

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Acta Orient. Hung. 59, 2006