Tartarian

plural Tartarians · alternative Tartarean

1. archaicA Tartar.

   Two, or Three Honest Men […] should be Skilfull in Far-Forreyn-Languages: As, in the Sclauonian, or Moschouite, the Arabik Vulgar, the Turkish, the Tartarien, the Chiny Language, the Canadien, and the Islandish, &c.

   1577, John Dee, Perfect Arte of Navigation

2. datedAny of various varieties of cherry. The Black Tartarian is a sweet cherry from Russia; the White Tartarian is a French variety of the early 1800s.

alternative Tartarean

1. archaicThe language of the Tartars; Tatar.

comparative more Tartarian · superlative most Tartarian · alternative Tartarean

1. Of or relating to Tartary or the Tartars; Tartaric.

   Then hauing paſt Armenian deſerts now, And pitcht our tents vnder the Georgean hills, Whoſe tops are couered with Tartarian theeues, That lie in ambuſh, waiting for a pray: What ſhould we doe but bid them battel ſtraight, And rid the world of thoſe deteſted troopes?

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii

comparative more Tartarian · superlative most Tartarian · alternative Tartarean

1. Pertaining to Tartarus; hellish, infernal.

   (Sulphur Bottom).—Another retiring gentleman, with a brimstone belly, doubtless got by scraping along the Tartarian tiles in some of his profounder divings.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 32, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 153