Wiktionary

tamada

English edit

WOTD – 12 May 2020

Etymology edit

 
Niko Pirosmani, Begos’s Friends (1910s).[n 1] The painting depicts a keipi or traditional banquet, and the man on the right holding a flask and a drinking horn called a kantsi is a tamada.

Borrowed from Georgian თამადა (tamada), from (Proto-?)Circassian *tħamada (compare Adyghe тхьаматэ (tḥamatɛ, “foreman of a village; boss; master; chairman; (dated) husband”), Kabardian тхьэмадэ (tḥɛmadɛ, “foreman of a village; boss; master; chairman; (dialectal) bridegroom, wooer”)), probably from Ottoman Turkish داماد (damat, “bridegroom; son-in-law; sovereign's brother-in-law”) (from Persian داماد (dâmâd, “bridegroom; son-in-law; father-in-law; sovereign's brother-in-law; lover, wooer”)) with the ending reshaped under the influence of Kabardian адэ (adɛ, “father”).

The suggestion that the word is derived from a blend of თავი (tavi, “head”) +‎ მაგიდა (magida, “table”) (in the sense of a person at the head of a table) is a folk etymology.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

tamada (plural tamadas)

  1. (chiefly Georgia) A toastmaster at a feast in the Caucasus, especially in Georgia.
    • 1977, Bart McDowell, Journey across Russia: The Soviet Union Today, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISBN, page 223:
      We have the custom of a toastmaker – the tamada, we call him. For the sake of order, he proposes all the toasts. Will you support me as tamada?
    • 1982, Soviet Literature: A Monthly Journal of the Union of Writers of the U.S.S.R., Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 24:
      The tamada—the master of ceremonies—with practised skill opened a bottle and poured out half a glassful for himself with the explanation, "The tamada must drink first. If there's poison in this glass you'll soon know of it and save yourself."
    • 1989, Dee Ann Holisky, The Annual of the Society for the Study of Caucasia, Chicago, Ill.: The Society for the Study of Caucasia, →OCLC, page 26:
      A good tamada has a number of special qualities. First of all, a good tamada is one who is good with words, who speaks clearly and cleverly, who can say in a[sic] original way things which are heard over and over again at every supra. The best tamadas are extemporaneous poets.
    • 1992, National Geographic Magazine, volume 181, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 110:
      A tamada, or toastmaster—an obligatory feature of any Georgian feast—Cholokashvili was proposing the ultimate toast, to the mystery and romance of the vine. [...] Unfortunately it is also traditional that all tamadas have to be obeyed, as I learned from Zezva Gochilaidze in Tusheti.
    • 1997, Mary Ellen Chatwin, Socio-cultural Transformation and Foodways in the Republic of Georgia, Commack, N.Y.: Nova Science Publishers, →ISBN, page 176:
      Although Georgians don't commonly determine any vocabulary which signifies specific states of intoxication, these states are mentioned indirectly by tamadas when they explain the difficult task of keeping drinkers' moods and inebriation at the table at an even keel.
    • 2017, Aksana Ismailbekova, “Rahim’s Victory Feast: Political Patronage and Kinship in Solidarity”, in Blood Ties and the Native Son: Poetics of Patronage in Kyrgyzstan, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 168:
      This tamada had excellent rhetorical skills; he was fluent in both Russian and Kyrgyz and knew the languages of humor and honor.

Translations edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ From the collection of the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow, Russia.

Further reading edit

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