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Linguistically, the term "Colchians" (κόλχοι), previously used in the name of the script, has been clarified and discarded. This lexical product of the ancient Ashui linguistic environment turned out not to be an ethnonym, but a designation of a profession, a craft.

The lexical fund of modern Abkhaz, Abaza, and Ubykh languages has changed significantly since the time when the ancient Greeks learned of the eastern coast of the Pontus. Many native words that were previously used independently ceased to exist, and if these words had not been part of some compounds, we would have forever lost the ability to identify them. It is precisely to this type of word that the word κόλχος, κόλχοι recorded in Greek sources belongs.

Freeing the term from the Greek grammatical affix -os, -οι, we obtain the root stem κολχ, which in retrospect, from the perspective of the Ashui speech, appears complex, consisting of two word-components: the nominal ko and the verbal -λχ.

The verbal component -λχ, corresponding to the Abkhaz and Abaza root лх, has survived to our time in the extensive semantics of action denoting "processing," "refining," "treatment," "extraction (of something from something)," etc. The nominal component ko has lost its semantics, and its sound and meaning can no longer be directly represented, although the verbal component лх suggests that the preceding nominal should denote an object that can be subjected to processing, refining, treatment, extraction, etc.

In accordance with the history of production of the ancient Ashui people, as far as it is accessible and known today from archaeological and ethnographic data, I assumed that the nominal object in the compound was most likely the name of a metal and began to search for a word of corresponding meaning and form. I again did not find a monosyllabic word, but in another compound in the form куа (= Greek κο) it appeared to me in the Abkhaz term куалзы, Abaza кIуалзы — "armor," "chain mail," "cuirass."

The word куалзы, кIуалзы is compound. In its second part, again verbal, it is completely transparent: -лзы means "hardened" (cf. Abaza лазара — "hardening," "hardened"). The word =лзы is formed from the root зы, which is represented in the verb а=з=ра — "to temper," "to burn," "to fry," and is reinforced by the preverb л= with the meaning of "movement inward," whence the rare а=л=з=ра — "to harden," literally: "to burn into." There is no doubt that "to harden" in the direct sense of the word can only be applied to metal, therefore куалзы, кIуалзы — "armor," "chain mail," "cuirass" is: куа || кIуа — "metal," =лзы — "hardened."

Among the Abkhaz-speaking peoples, we know names for copper and iron. The root base of these metals does not coincide with the root куа || кIуа. Using the method of elimination, we must recognize in the root куа || кIуа the name of the third metal — "bronze." It is no coincidence that the root куа || кIуа is part of the compound word Abkh. (а)и=куаӷа=а, Abaza кIуа=ӷа — "axe." Abkh. (а)и=куа=ӷа is not an ordinary axe, but a special axe, the so-called Abkhaz form with a notch in the blade for wearing on the arm. Its prototype is the Colchian bronze axe. We will postpone the search for the independent word куа || кIуа until better times. What we have achieved now is quite sufficient for us to attach the word куа || кIуа in the meaning of "metal" resp. "bronze" to the verbal root лх and obtain a term that once denoted "metalworking" or "bronze-working" (person).

The ancient Ashui compound word куалх || кIуалх was perceived by the Greeks in the form κολχ, rendering the diphthong уа through о. Thus the "ethnonym" κόλχοβ appeared, meaning here "metallurgist," literally "bronze worker." The term куалх || кIуалх was created by the ancient Ashui people, the ancestors of the Abkhaz-Abaza-Ubykhs, at that time of their life when they already knew the smelting and hot casting of metal, i.e., at least in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. The metal objects from the Maykop Kurgan already speak of the well-mastered technique of the Ashui metallurgists.

But why did the word куалх || кIуалх, which in the Ashui language meant "bronze worker," become an ethnonym among the Greeks? Of course, by pure chance. The Ashui people, whom the Greeks first encountered, turned out to be metallurgists. They were famous for producing excellent bronze and especially axes, known far beyond Ashui — Abkhazia.

The fame of the metallurgists contributed to the fact that the term "Colchian" became established as an ethnonym not only among the Greeks. Urartian (Chaldean) sources from the 8th century BC also know the country of Kulha.