tamada

Meaning

Noun

• A toastmaster at a feast in the Caucasus, especially in Georgia.

Origin

• Borrowed from Georgian თამადა, from (Proto-?)Circassian *tħamada (compare Adyghe тхьаматэ, Kabardian тхьэмадэ), probably from Ottoman Turkish داماد (from Persian داماد) with the ending reshaped under the influence of адэ.
• The suggestion that the word is derived from a (in the sense of a person at the head of a table) is a folk etymology.