On the face of things the headword would seem to be the nominative singular form of a word that is attested, outside lexicography, only in the dative plural at Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3.1007 (web address 1). That attestation and the other lexicographical appearances of the word (e.g. Herodian, Partitiones 35.8; Etymologicum Gudianum 501.18; cf. Aristonicus on Homer, Odyssey 21.306; Hesychius epsilon4601) seem to connect it to e)phtu/s and e)ph/ths, words connoting 'courteous' and 'thoughtful' (cf. epsilon 2217, epsilon 2219). But such connotations do not fit the gloss here, and it is possible that the headword as transmitted is a lapse for e)pe/teia ('yearly', 'things arriving regularly'); cf. epsilon 2092 and epsilon 2093, and for a similar (apparent) lapse, see the entry immediately previous to this one, epsilon 2215.
Another possibility is (unattested) e)ph/leia, from e)/phlus (new arrival, foreigner); cf. epsilon 2178.