Monday, May 20, 2013

My 10 Favorite Georgian Words

Here are my 10 favorite Georgian words.


Warning: There are probably mistakes in both English and Georgian. 

1. მეზარება (mezareba)—This one word means, essentially, “I don’t feel like doing (something), out of laziness.”
Example:
A: Where’s the remote?
B: On the table. Go get it.
A: Urgh…მეზარებაააა.
Which is awesome, because honestly, how often do you want to say that? Probably a lot.

2. ჯობია (jobia)—“is better than (something else)”
Example:
A: ჭამე სუპი. (Eat soup)
B: არ მინდა. ხინკალი ჯობია. (I don’t want it. Khinkali (meat dumplings) is better.)
It’s just a great way to succinctly express your opinion.

3. ჯიგარი (jigari)—This word is literally a special stew made with various organs. But in slang it means, as far as I can tell, something like “really cool” or “awesome.”
Example: ჯიგარი ხარ. (You are jigari.)

4. უცნაურია (utsnauria)—“Weird!” or “That’s weird”
Self-explanatory.

5. გენაცვალე (genatsvale)—“My dear.”
Just a very sweet word you can say to the people who are dear to you.

6. არ შეძლება (ar sheidzleba)—“not allowed” or “not possible”
Example:
A: (Tries to leave the house with wet hair)
B: You’ll catch a cold! არ შეიძლება!
This phrase is just fun to say and something we Americans will often say to each other even when we are speaking English (Example: “That’s totally არ შეიდლება.”)

7. ობობა (oboba)—“Spider”
Just a great sounding word. Also, in the plural address form, it’s ობობებო (obobebo), for example: “ობობებო. გამოდი“ (Spiders! Come out), which probably sounds pretty უცნაური (see above) out of context, but I’ve heard a woman saying this when she was cleaning the cobwebs in a room, so it can be said.

8. ზეგ (zeg)--“The day after tomorrow”
Just way more simple to say than “the day after tomorrow.” Really useful.  

9. პახმელია (pakhmelia)--“Hangover.”
I guess this is technically a Russian word, but it's commonly used in Georgia. I just like how it sounds.
Example: “პახმელიაზე ხარ?” (Are you hungover?)

10. წარმატაბები (tsarmatabebi)—“Good luck.”
Another nice sounding word, and nice to say to people as a parting phrase.

Okay, that’s all folks.

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