Georgia (country)

Georgia (Georgian: ?????????? Sakartvelo), known from 1990 to 1995 as the Republic of Georgia, is a country to the east of the Black Sea in the southern Caucasus. A former republic of the Soviet Union, it shares borders with Russia in the north and Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan in the south.

Origin of the name

Georgians call themselves Kartvelebi (??????????), their land Sakartvelo (??????????), and their language Kartuli (???????). These names are derived from a pagan chief called Kartlos, said to be the father of all Georgians. The foreign name Georgia, used throughout the world, is derived from Persian ???? Gurji via the Arabic Jurj. Because the spelling was influenced by the Greek root ge?rg- (?????-, indicating farming; see also List of traditional Greek place names), the word has been mistakenly supposed to have come from a cognate such as St. George (the country's patron saint), or ??????? (ge?rgía, farming).

Related Topics:
Pagan chief - Kartlos - Persian - Arabic - Greek - List of traditional Greek place names - Cognate - St. George

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The ancient world knew the inhabitants of eastern Georgia as Iberians, from the Caucasian kingdom of Iberia — thus confusing the geographers of antiquity, who thought this name applied only to the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar).

Related Topics:
Iberia - Iberian Peninsula - Spain - Portugal - Andorra - Gibraltar

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Gurj, the Persian designation for the Georgians, is also the source of Turkish Gürcü (pronounced "Gürdjü") and Russian ?????? Gruzin. The name of the country is Gurjestan in Persian, Gürcistan in Turkish, and ?????? Gruziya in Russian. The Persian name is probably related to the Armenian words for Georgian and Georgia, respectively Vir and Virq. (There are other instances in which a Persian word-initial gu- is derived from an earlier wi- or wa-). Thus, both the Persian and the Armenian words appear to be related to the name Iberia, with loss of the initial i- and substitution of w or v for the b of Iberia.

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There is also, in all likelihood, an etymological connection between the name Iberia and the historic province of Georgia called Imereti.

Related Topics:
Iberia - Imereti

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