The Kartvelian toponymic "et" suffix is clearly present - "Massageti, the country of the Massagi". Is it possible to interpret the root "massag" in Kartvelian too? The Kartvelians do not have such a word.
But they do have an excellent Ossetian (Alanian? Scythian?) adjective suffix "-ag", which is very common in Kartvelian words. Without this suffix, "mas-" remains as a root. But it can and should be interpreted from the Kartvelian point of view, because, perhaps, it is the root of the word "mase" (მასე), meaning "fishing net". The double "-ss-", as already commented in other articles, is the measure to prevent the sonorization of "s", which tends to turn into [z] in most European languages if it appears between vowels.
The Massagetae are described by Herodotus as fishermen, so it all fits.
...but! The word "masage" in Megrelian also means the doer of the "sagua" action. Such verb exists and means "hit someone on the face" or "to eat rationally". Thus, can be this attestation too.
0 Comments