Among the most striking Kartvelian toponyms in Spain are the towns of Sasamón, located thirty kilometers west of Burgos, and Zazuar, approximately two hundred kilometers to the south. These names not only reveal Kartvelian linguistic patterns but also form a remarkable pair that reflects contrasting cultural attributes.
The name Sasamón can be analyzed through its root, Samoni, which appears as a biblical name in the Georgian dictionary of Orthodox names, where it is interpreted as msukani (მსუქანი), meaning "fat":
https://www.orthodoxy.ge/sakhelebi/ka/m_sani.htm
Additionally, Samoni—often considered a Jewish name—may itself be a Kartvelian construction, built on the toponymic prefix Sa- (denoting "place of") and the root moni. In Otari Kajaya’s dictionary of the Megrelian language, moni is defined as movne, mavnebeli (მოვნე, მავნებელი), meaning "harmful," with a specific connection to digestion. Kajaya illustrates this with the phrase: ar schamo, kuchi ar agishalos, mavnebeli ("Don’t eat, your stomach can’t handle it, it’s harmful"). This digestive connotation ties directly to the concept of "fat," as overindulgence or harmful eating can lead to weight gain. Thus, Sasamón (from Sa-samone) can be translated as "the country of the fat ones," a Kartvelian toponym reflecting a cultural or physical characteristic of the region’s inhabitants.
In contrast, the name Zazuar follows a similar Kartvelian toponymic structure but with a different root: suari, meaning "thin" in one of its Kartvelian senses. Thus, Sasuar(e)—which becomes Zazuar through phonetic evolution—translates to "the country of the thin ones." The alternation between s and z in Sasuar and Zazuar is not uncommon, as evidenced by the historical pair Zaragoza and Saragossa, which reflect the same phonetic shift in Spanish toponyms.
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