SASPEIRES

Herodotus places the legendary and presumably Kartvelian nation of Saspeires between Colchis and Media. If this is indeed a Kartvelian construction on "Sa-", then its root will be "speir/sper/spir". The meaning of the root is not known yet. It may be a participle of the "spoba" verb, may be even something close to "spilo" ("elephant" in Georgian). We can be for sure only that the construction is Kartvelian.