In present-day Georgia, daba is typically defined as a settlement with a population of no fewer than 3,000 and established social and technical infrastructure, which enables it to function as a local economic and cultural center; it, furthermore, should not possess large agricultural lands. The status of daba can also be granted to a settlement with a population of fewer than 3,000, provided it functions as an administrative center of the district (municipality) or has a prospect of further economic and population growth in the nearest future.[1]
Etymology
Daba is the term well known in Old Georgian, where it had the meaning "cornfield, hamlet". It is derived from a Common Kartvelian root *dab(a), which is also a source of the Svandäb, "cornfield", and, possibly, the Mingreliandobera (dobira), "arable land". The derivative words are udabno, "desert", and mdabali, "low".[3] The name daba is also a basis for several placenames in Georgia, such as Daba, Akhaldaba ("new daba"), Q'veldaba ("cheese daba"), and Dabadzveli ("old daba").
List of daba in Georgia
As of 2011, 50 settlements are categorized in Georgia as daba. These, listed according to a population size (2002 census), are:
12(in Georgian)მოხელის სამაგიდო ლექსიკონი / გაეროს განვითარების პროგრამა; [შემდგ.: სამსონ ურიდია და სხვ.; რედ.: ვაჟა გურგენიძე] - თბ., 2004 - 483გვ.: ცხრ.; 24სმ. - (საჯარო მოსამსახურის ბ-კა). - ISBN99940-0-063-2.
↑Allen, William Edward David (1932, reissued 1971), A History of the Georgian People: From the Beginning Down to the Russian Conquest in the Nineteenth Century, p. 240. Taylor & Francis, ISBN0-7100-6959-6.
↑Klimov, Georgy (1998), Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages, p. 36. Walter de Gruyter, ISBN3-11-015658-X.
