κέλῡφος and καλύπτω

Abstract

Though καλύπτω ‘cover’ is normally and correctly associated with *√ḱel- ‘cover’, the origin of the entire base καλυφ- remains unclear. The basis of clarification consists in an appreciation of the formally resemblant s-stem κέλῡφος, whose meaning ‘sheath, case, shell, husk, pod’ has invited comparison. The author therefore hypothesizes that the bases καλυφ- and κελῡφ- include related layers of nominal material. Starting from an originally adnominal *ḱel-ó- (> OIr. cel ‘death’), the author reconstructs the u-stem substantive *ḱó/él-u- ‘covering’, for which the evidence of Proto-Germanic *χlewa- ‘shelter’ and Greek κολεόν ‘sheath’ is adduced. The element in -φ- is then argued to reflect a nominalized form of *√bʰuhx- ‘become’ qua light verb of an anti-causative periphrasis whose originally acrostatic heavy member *ḱó/él-u- was employed as a predicative instrumental *ḱéluh₁ eventually fossilized as an indeclinable adnominal eligible for use as a First Compound Member (FCM) (> κέλῡφος). By comparison to the allomorphically archaic πόλις ‘city’ (gen. πόληος), the author finally argues for the paradigmatic renewal of *ḱó/él-u- (> > *ḱól-u- : ḱl̥-u̯- : ḱl̥l-éu̯) and the eligibility of its weak stem as first member of a compound from which was formed the *-i̯e/o- present ancestral to καλύπτω.