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The word for 'good' in Anatolian IE languages looks like this:

Hittite: āššu
Luwian: wāšu
Palaic: wāšu 'goods'
Lydian: wiśśi

I have seen so many questionmarks regarding it's Indo-European reconstruction, which make me wonder whether those words are Indo-European or inherited by a pre-IE substrate. I know Greek has ἐύς and Illyrian ves- (in PN Vescleves), but those are languages from the "neighbourhood". My question is: Do we have other cognates within Indo-European or is my substrate hypothesis plausible?

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    "The Sanskrit sú did not convince me." Can you give us more details why you find it unconvincing.
    – Alex B.
    Dec 18, 2016 at 21:11
  • @AlexB. Is there a reason why h1oh1 > Ø in h1oh1s-u- (which is questionable)? Even if there is and I am not aware of it, I don't know if it would convincingly answer the question.
    – Midas
    Dec 18, 2016 at 21:22
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    PIE *HC- > Sanskrit Ø; Greek e/a/o; Hittite a, h, Ø (Beekes 2011: 147).
    – Alex B.
    Dec 19, 2016 at 2:08
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    I am not claiming anything but Slavic (eg ru.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/вещь) is superficially similar. I cannot think of a cognate in Armenian but anyway it would be possible just a borrowing.
    – Adam Bittlingmayer
    Dec 19, 2016 at 13:41

1 Answer 1

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IE *h1(e)su- accounts reasonably well for ἐύς m, ἐύ n., as well as for Skt. su- and for Hitt. āššu-. The final -ς of ἐύς is simply the case ending for the nom. s.

The Luvian etc. forms look more like Skt vasu-, Av. vohu- and their cognates, IE *uesu-.

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  • I remembered also the Illyrian personal name Vescleves, where vesu stands for 'good'. Do we have anything in Germanic, Italic and Celtic languages?
    – Midas
    Dec 19, 2016 at 6:34
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    @Midas. Beekes mentions also Irish feb "eminence" < *uesu-.
    – fdb
    Dec 19, 2016 at 10:31
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    There's also a Gallaecian name -so either Hispano-Celtic or Lusitanian, but in any case in the westernmost extreme of the ancient distribution of Indo-European languages-: VESUCLOTI, a composite (gen.): < *wesu-kleut- "(he who have) good fame".
    – Miguel Costa
    Dec 19, 2016 at 16:02
  • Correct link: ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/26/22/06vallejo.pdf (p. 104).
    – Miguel Costa
    Dec 19, 2016 at 16:08
  • @fdb Please update your post with the latest suggestions. I think we have enough parallels that speak for an IE origin. I would gladly mark this post as the final answer.
    – Midas
    Dec 20, 2016 at 7:24

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