Editing Tsiba (section)

==Etymology==

The etymology of the name Tsiba (pronounced TSEE-bah) is disputed. It is likely that the name came from the Roman-era nickname for the country, Bacatsy, first recorded in the mid-third century. This name came from the Latin word “baca”, meaning ‘berry’, and the Tsidi word “tsy”, or ‘land’. At the time, Tsiba was home to a pervasive species of distinctive orange berry bushes that grew across the country’s farmlands. The species disappeared by the late eighth to early ninth centuries but the name remained, becoming Tsibaka and then Tsiba during the Persian era. An alternate etymology contests that Tsiba is a shortening of the Old Tsidi word “Itsimiba”, meaning ‘to stay in place’.

People from Tsiba are simply referred to as Tsiba. Multiple people from Tsiba are either referred to as Tsibas, a more modern phrase that comes from the British colonial period, as Putsiba, the traditional way to pluralize the word in Tsidi.