Etymology

Tangut

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Today it means: A Qiangic people of mediaeval northern China. Full definition →

Old Turkic 𐱃𐰭𐰆𐱃 ← Medieval Latin Tangut
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The story

  1. Medieval Latin · derived fromTangut
  2. Old Turkic · derived from𐱃𐰭𐰆𐱃
  3. English todayTangut

From a Middle Mongol exonym used by the Mongols, which would become the Classical Mongolian ᠲᠠᠩᠭᠤᠳ (tangɣud) that was phonetically transcribed in Ming-era Early Mandarin Chinese as 唐兀_惕 (/*tʰaŋ(ŋ)ut/) in the Chinese edition of the Secret History of the Mongols (《元朝秘史》). The designation ultimately derives from Old Turkic 𐱃𐰭𐰆𐱃 (t¹ŋwt¹) as attested in the 8th-century Bilgä Qaǧan stele. The English word, and similar forms in European languages, derives from Medieval Latin Tangut (*Tangunt in the Leiden manuscript) from the accounts of William of Rubruck compiled in the 1250s. The English form was attested in the writings of Richard Hakluyt who translated parts of William's accounts in the late 16th century.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.