That's the name of one of the most exciting Georgian mountain regions, 'Land of Hevsurs'.
The problem of word's etymology is in its ambiguity: the word can be split into morphems differently.
1. Hevs(i) + uri. The word ხევსი [hevsi] means light food, gruel. Hevsuri, thus, is an adjective. While Hevsureti is 'land of hevsuri'.
2. Hevi + Sureti. The word ხევი [hevi] means gorge, ravine. Thus, Hevsureti might mean 'Sureti located in a gorge'. Sureti is 'land of suri', which may have a direct relation to Syria, which is pronounced by the Syrians themselves as [s-oo-ria], not [siria].
The latter hypothesis seems even more interesting in light of the fact that Cappadokia, which itself is surrounded by Kartvelian toponyms, and which used to be inhabited by White Syrians, is likely to have a Megrelian morpheme 'dokia', meaning 'small'.
NO. "Hevsureti" means "love or want gorge". "hevi" means gorge while "survili" means desire, want or love.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean, 'no'? What are your reasons to stick to one of the versions? And how do you connect 'survili' and 'sureti'? 'Love gorge' would be 'survilis hevi'. How does it become 'hevsureti'?
DeleteOK. I consider saying"ხევი სურდათ მათ" and therefore I get ხევსურეთი. but you may be right that there is no reason to stick to one or the other version. And I've been researching them for a while and I myself don't come far from them. And stories say that these people used to hid themselves from civilized world somewhere far in the mountains on purpose for the sake of solitude and just to be left alone from the lords and vicissitudes of life in south. Herodotus mentions them, when he is saying that in Caucasus there are people who produce a dye which doesn't fade and lose color after washed for many times. And that's true, they use dye on clothes and doesn't fade
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