refuted · Passage A.222

Claims

• B-002 A supports

  Georgian linguists argue that the element ბერი (beri) in surnames is not simply the modern word for 'monk' or 'old man'. In his study of the ბერ- root in Georgian names, ი. მაისურაძე held that in compound names such as გოგიბერი and კახაბერი (the sources of კახაბერიძე, გოგიბერიძე etc.) only the first part was a man's name, while ბერი served as a general masculine marker meaning 'boy', 'son', 'male child' (ვაჟი, ბიჭი, ყრმა) — so გოგიბერი is "გოგი the boy", not "son of გოგი". მარიამ კობერიძე (2024) endorses this view and adds that ბერი is an old Common Kartvelian word for 'son' (ივ. ჯავახიშვილი; cf. Laz ბერე 'son', preserved in the surname კაკუბერე 'son of Kaku'). The simple surname ბერიძე itself presupposes a personal name ბერი, so it is read as 'son of ბერი' — a name that carried this older sense of 'boy, male child'. The word ბერი is polysemous (old person, monk, son, infant, a child vowed to an icon), and the 'monk' sense does dominate in place-names, but scholars hold that in surname formation it marked male descent.

• B-302 refuted contradicts

  "Son of the monk" (Behind the Name, forebears.io user entry)

  A flat simplification no Georgian specialist endorses. Both camps in the scholarly dispute reject it.