ფოთი

Georgian

Etymology

The name is apparently linked to ფაზისი (pazisi), but the etymology is a matter of a scholarly dispute. "Phasis" (Φᾶσις (Phâsis)) is first recorded in Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BC) as a name of the river, not a town. Since Erich Diehl, 1938, first suggested a non-Hellenic origin of the name and asserted that Phasis might have been a derivative of a local hydronym, several explanations have been proposed, linking the name to the Proto-Georgian-Zan *poti, Svan *pasid, and even to a Semitic word, meaning "a gold river".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʰotʰi/

Proper noun

ფოთი • (poti)

1. Poti (a city in Georgia)

References

• Otar Lordkipanidze (2000), Phasis: The River and City in Colchis. Franz Steiner Verlag, →ISBN.