ከተማ

Amharic

Noun

ከተማ • (kätäma) ?

1. military camp, garrison, cantonment
2. city, town

Ge'ez

Etymology

Compare Sanskrit कोट्ट (koṭṭa), कोट (koṭa), and the suspected Sanskrit borrowings Telugu కోట (kōṭa), Kannada ಕೋಟೆ (kōṭe), Malayalam കോട്ട (kōṭṭa), Tamil கோட்டை (kōṭṭai), all meaning a fortification. Though Ludolf and Dillmann consider the Geʿez in this meaning a vulgar development or Amharism of “extremity, fine; tip, apex”, the opposite may be the case, and we may deal with a loanword also into Ethiopian from the time when Sanskrit ruled the Indian ocean.

Noun

ከተማ • (kätäma) m or f (plural ከተማት (kätämat))

1. extremity, fine, end
2. tip, apex, summit, cusp
3. military camp, garrison, cantonment

Derived terms

• ተከትመ (täkätmä, “to be encamped”)
• ከተመ (kätämä, “to allocate to a garrison”)
• ክቱም (kətum, “encamped, conscripted”)
• ክትመት (kətmät, “encampment, conscription”)

References

• Dillmann, August (1865) “ከተማ”, in Lexicon linguae aethiopicae cum indice latino (in Latin), Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, columns 851–852
• Leslau, Wolf (1991) Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez (Classical Ethiopic), 2nd edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, →ISBN, page 298a

Tigrinya

Noun

ከተማ • (kätäma)

1. city, town