tatars
tatars Lexical Profile
tatars Game Scores & Validity
• noun
Members of any of several Turkic-speaking ethnic groups living primarily in eastern European Russia (especially Tatarstan), Crimea, Siberia, and parts of Central Asia.
"The Volga Tatars constitute one of the largest ethnic minorities in the Russian Federation."
Historically, members of the combined Mongol and Turkic forces of the Golden Horde that invaded parts of Asia and Eastern Europe in the 13th century.
"Medieval chronicles frequently recorded the campaigns of the Tatars across the Eurasian steppe."
Word Nuance & Usage
Historically spelled 'Tartars' in Western Europe due to a medieval folk-etymology association with Tartarus (the classical underworld), though 'Tatars' is the standard modern ethnographical spelling.
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed via Persian and Turkic languages from Old Turkic 'Tatar', a tribal confederation name first recorded in the 8th-century Orkhon inscriptions.