Thomas Wier

In modern Georgian and its dialects there are other words for different kinds of blizzards, including:

ქარჭყოფი karč̣q̇oṗi a blizzard of sleet or freezing rain
ლემადე lemade a blizzard combined with fog
კორიანტელი ḳorianṭeli a blizzard-tornado
ჭოღუნი č̣oğuni snow-gale

The second element, the old Armenian loanword բուք buk, appears to have been itself derived from an Indo-European verbal root *bʰuH- blow, grow, become. Other IE cognate words:

Greek φύσις nature
Greek φυή growth
Albanian bëhem become
English bush
Sanskrit भव॑ति bhávati be

The first element of the compound ქარი kari 'wind' is an old Kartvelian root found that seems to have been a noun derived from a verb to blow away or to disappear, as Georgian's sister languages Megrelian and Svan only preserve this in verbal form: x.com/thomas_wier/...

Which translates: "If a traveler is alone, who will suffer the misfortune of great winter and blizzard"

From a church document მცირე სჯულისკანონი 'Minor Laws', dating to 995-1005.

The modern compound is found only in an 1895 translation of Italian novelist and poet Edmondo de Amicis's work "Heart of a Boy". The separate compound words are however old in Georgian: the Armenian loanword ბუქი buki is found no later than the late 10th century.

Weekly Georgian Etymology: ქარბუქი karbuki 'snowstorm, blizzard', modern compound of Old Georgian ႵႠႰႨ kari wind and ႡႳႵႨ buki snowstorm, from Kartvelian *kar- wind and Old Armenian բուք buk snowstorm, from Indo-European *bʰuH- swell, blow, become. One of several words for blizzards.

These facts, combined with the initial /s/ of both the Georgian root and the roots in Abkhaz-Adyghean languages, suggest the word may be been borrowed in the western Caucasus, either into Georgian via Megrelian, or from Megrelian into AA lgs but Megrelian later lost the root.

If the word was borrowed from some regional form like Kubachi šaχʷ hoarfrost, it might possibly have been borrowed via an unattested Megrelian dialect: in Megrelian there is a rule that shifts *a > u when a labial consonant is in the root. Thus

*sa-saxv- > *sa-sxv > *su-sxv-.

Another indication that the word probably antedates the 19th century by some centuries is that it already has several derived forms:

სუსხიანი susxiani chilly, frosty
სუსხავს susxavs it's chilly, frosty

Thus the word was already in some nonstandard use (perhaps) long before.

It seems likely though that the attested form is a reduplication of a wider regional loan word. Reduplication in modern Georgian today is rare, but was commoner in earlier stages of the language: e.g. ჭაჭა č̣ač̣a grappa < *č̣an- slurry

The word is not regularly found in any sister Kartvelian language, and is likely a borrowing into the literary language from unattested nonstandard Georgian dialects. But whether these themselves borrowed from other neighboring languages, or are the source, is less clear.

The word does not enter regular attestation until even later, in Akaki Tsereteli's 1896 historical novel Bashi-Achuki: "Nice, but often bitter cold strikes the swallow flying [too] early and the cold kills it."

The word is attested only quite late, in Davit Chubinashvili's trilingual Georgian-Russian-French dictionary of 1840:

Weekly Georgian Etymology: სუსხი susxi 'biting cold', reduplication of a late loan from/into late Middle Georgian and some Caucasian source: cf. Adyghe saχ frost, Abaza sǝχa snow-flake or sleet, Akusha Dargwa šaχ hoar-frost, Kubachi šaχʷ hoar-frost. A pan-Caucasian Wanderwort.

These words come from a very old root *ḳurcʲx- 'foot'; the Svan form is likely a calque of Megrelian. Given the lack of shared cognates, and Western accounts, it seems more likely that the tradition of celebrating a 'First-foot' arrival is a late Medieval or early Modern custom.

So if the word root is old but the term to describe the tradition is much more recent, when did this tradition of celebrating the first guest of the New Year begin? This is harder to say: Megrelian მაკუჩხური maḳučxuri and Svan მჷჭშხი məč̣šxi are calques of Georgian, not cognate.

In Indo-European, the original meaning was a highly generalized sense 'turn, revolve', and came to mean more specific nouns or adverbs over time. Something similar happened in Kartvelian: we see the same root in კვლავ ḳvlav 'again' and კვალად ḳvalad again, accordingly

Like many Georgian-Zan roots which cannot be traced to Kartvelian, this root may be a loanword, perhaps from Indo-European *kʷelh₁- turn, revolve:

Sanskrit चल cala moving
Greek πάλιν back, again
Greek τέλος end, result
Latin colus spindle
Albanian tšela bring, turn
Ukrainian ко́ло wheel

The word კვალი ḳvali has a clear provenance back to Georgian-Zan, as it is found in Megrelian and Laz with regular sound changes:

Meg უკული uḳuli then, after, again
Laz ოკულე oḳule then, behind

Since Svan lacks a cognate form, it cannot be reconstructed to Proto-Kartvelian.

Which translates: "...and no one dared to cover themselves since the Persian royal governor supported his path back, and he cursed them with many curses."

A specific word for the tradition is only attested quite late, around 1900. Its root word კვალი ḳvali 'trace, step, footprint' is however quite old, attested in the earliest Georgian extended text, the Martyrdom of Queen Shushanik in 476:

The skyline of Batumi during New Year's celebrations

Weekly Georgian Etymology: მეკვლეობა Meḳvleoba 'First-foot (tradition)', from Middle Georgian მეკვლე meḳvle hunter, tracker from Old Georgian ႩႳႠႪႨ ḳuali trace, step, from Georgian-Zan *ḳwal- step. It draws its name from superstitions surrounding the New Year's first visitor.

Georgian has a pretty distinct word for 'Greek': berʒeni (ბერძენი).

It's been explained as deriving from a word for 'wise', with Greece thought of as the land of wise people, but a more plausible explanation is that it comes from the city of Byzantium, centuries before it became Constantinople.

Members of the Mesame Dasi 'Third Troupe', Social Democrats who were instrumental in the founding of the First Georgian Republic, 1918-1921.

In Georgian historiography, the word დასი dasi later acquired an additional nonreligious connotation by association with the მესამე დასი Mesame Dasi, 'Third Troupe', a group of Social Democrats instrumental in the founding of the first Georgian Republic, 1918-1921.

So the word may be either a direct loan from Armenian, and indirectly from some form of Iranian; or a direct loan from one of such Iranian languages. This is turn may be from Indo-European dmH₂-sḱ- build, but Iranian scholars hesitate to suggest this because of sound-reflexes in daughter lgs.

Cheung 2007: 64

Cheung's Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb lists several possible source forms, including Avestan spāra-dāšta 'heaped up with good things' and Digor Ossetic dasun 'to heap up'. So it is probably Iranian, but whether West Iranian or East Iranian is not clear, as both are potential sources.

The word is not found in Georgian's sister lgs and is certainly a loan, but precisely from which regional lg is less clear. It is found in Old Armenian as դաս das meaning 'group, rank, order, class' and this word in turn is from some form of Iranian language - which is not clear.

Which translates: "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?"

Below: the Nativity and the Annunciation to the Shepherds by Bicci di Lorenzo

Angels of "The Nativity" by Duccio di Buon Insegna, ca. 1308

The word is first attested in the Old Georgian Adish gospels, in Matthew 26:53, where Jesus says: ანუ ჰგონებ, ვითარმედ ვერ შემძლებელ ვარ ვედრებად მამისა ჩემისა, და დამიდგინოს მე აწ აქა უფროჲს ათორმეტი დასი ანგელოზთაჲ?

A choir of angels in "Paradise" by Fra Angelico

Weekly Georgian Etymology: დასი dasi 'group, troupe, choir, host', from Old Georgian ႣႠႱႨ dasi, via Old Armenian դաս das or directly from Indo-Iranian das- heap, arrange, perhaps from Indo-European dmH₂-sḱ- build. At Christmas time commonly used to refer to hosts of angels.