Itt. išta(n)ḫ- e mema/-i: 'esperire' e 'riflettere' tra concretezza e metafora

Starting from the etymology of lat. superstitio (cf. also Gr. ἐπιστήμη, Ags. understandan etc., all deriving from i.e. *steh2- ‘to stand’ together with a localistic preverb) proposed by Belardi (1976) and from a recent semantic interpretation of the Hittite phrase -za Zi-ni āppa mema/i- in the sense of ‘to speak from the bottom of one’s heart, to reflect’ advanced by Francia (2010), the present paper aims to offer new evidence for the etymological interpretation of the Hittite verb mema/i- ‘to speak’ proposed by Carruba (1986), who derives it from the i.e. root *men-/mon-/mn̥- ‘to think’. Then, a new etymological interpretation for the Hittite verb išta(n)ḫ- ‘to taste, to try (food or drinks)’ is given, connecting it – as already suggested by Eichner (1986) – with other Hittite verbs such as ištantai- ‘to stay put, to linger, to be late’, tiya- ‘to place oneself, to step, to set in’ and tittanu- ‘to install, to seat, to put’, both from a structural point of view and from a more general perspective.