Etymology

Bulgaria

B3U1L1G2A1R1I1A1

Today it means: A country in Southeastern Europe. Official name: Republic of Bulgaria. Capital and largest city: Sofia. Full definition →

English Bulgar ← Medieval Latin Bulgarus ← Old Church Slavonic блъгаринъ (blŭgarinŭ)
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Turkic*bulga-
  2. Proto-Turkic*bulgar
  3. Old Turkic𐰉𐰆𐰞𐰍𐰀 (b¹wl¹g¹a)
  4. Old Church Slavonicблъгаринъ (blŭgarinŭ)
  5. Medieval LatinBulgarus
  6. EnglishBulgar
  7. English todayBulgaria

From Medieval Latin Bulgaria, equivalent to Bulgar + -ia, in English used from the 16th century.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.