For Clarification of the Meaning of the Term “Temi”

The word თემი (Temi) has long meant and still means a corner or region of a country that isunited on geographical and ethnic grounds, with some people living together in villages or a collection of some villages. In the mountainous Georgian villages, თემი (Temi) has the meaning of families sharing a single surname with their own leader, habits and traditions (ფშაველთა თემი – the temi of the Pshavians). In recent times, there has been an attempt to establish another meaning for this word by ignoring linguistic rules. What we are speaking of is how the new meaning being established fails to include the people together locally, as it used to mean in Georgian for centuries. For example, here is one of the meanings for this word given in an encyclopedic dictionary (the electronic version under the heading “Civil” Encyclopedic Dictionary): “თემი (Temi) – the uniting factor between common interests, points of view, opinions, activities, hobbies, dwelling places, sex or nationality. The basis of the term თემი (Temi) is the relationship between people” (Source: Introduction to LGBT Journalism by Shorena Gabunia, edited by Mr. Irakli Vacharadze, "The Nongovernmental Organization Identoba, Tbilisi, 2013. 319 pages; attachment 145-316; Dictionary: P. 3-34)”.
The English term community, meaning “a group of people living in one place” is considered as the equivalent of the Georgian word თემი, and it is given as such in its
Georgian translation in the electronic sources of dictionaries. Besides the given meaning, it also includes the meaning of a people united by common attributes, which in Georgian – also according to the data in lexicons – corresponds to the ideas of ტერმინ თემის მნიშვნელობის დაზუსტებისათვის 65 “sazogadoeba” or “gaertianeba” (“society “union,” ”group,” etc.) This paper will attempt to prove that the definition of the word თემი (Temi) should be explained as tied to a local and territorial features and in the cases mentioned above in this abstract, the English word community could be translated into “gaertianeba” (“union” or “association”) or any other relevant word, which should be decided through the agreement of linguists.