Turk

plural Turks · alternative Türk · alternative Túrk · alternative Turke

1. human sciencesA member of any of the various ethnic groups that speak the Turkic languages.
2. A member of a West Asian ethnic group native to Anatolia (which comprises the bulk of their modern nation-state of Türkiye).

   1 more example

   The people of Matabello, like those of most of the Mahometan villages of East Ceram and Goram, amused me much by their strange ideas concerning the Russian war. They believe that the Russians were not only most thoroughly beaten by the Turks, but were absolutely conquered, and all converted to Islamism! And they can hardly be convinced that such is not the case, and that had it not been for the assistance of France and England, the poor Sultan world have fared ill. Another of their motions is, that the Turks are the largest and strongest people in the world - in fact a race of giants; that they eat enormous quantities of meat, and are a most ferocious and irresistible nation.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 104

3. obsoleteA Muslim.

   Compare but our manners unto a Turke [translating Mahometan], or a Pagan, and we must needs yeeld unto them[…].

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers—if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me—with two Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players?

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 268, column 2

   It is no good reason for a man's religion that he was born and brought up in it; for then a Turk would have as much reason to be a Turk as a Christian to be a Christian.

   1637, William Chillingworth, The Religion of Protestants a Safe Way to Salvation

4. a Christian horse-archer in Crusader army (Turcopole).
5. archaicderogatoryA bloodthirsty and savage person; vandal; barbarian.First known use 16th c.

   Was neuer any Impe so wicked and barbarous, any Turke so vyle and brutishe.

   1579, John Lyly, Euphues, page 42

   4 more examples

   A sort of primitive barbarity distinguishes the whole; no variety of character appears; and to call a man Turk is to say, that he is jealous, haughty, covetous, ignorant, and lascivious; at the same time that a certain dignity of gait, and magnificence of manners, gives him the appearance of generosity and true greatness of soul.

   1760, Tobias George Smollett, editor, The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature, Volume 9, page 20

   A bad temper does seem often favourable to health. The man who has been a Turk all his life lives long to plague all about him.

   1987, Anne Mozley, Essays from "Blackwood", page 21

   As much as the wilfully or naturally blunted, the intelligently honest have to learn by touch: only, their understandings cannot meanwhile be so wholly obtuse as our society's matron, acting to please the tastes of the civilized man—a creature that is not clean-washed of the Turk in him—barbarously exacts.

   1906, George Meredith, One of our conquerors, page 292

   They regarded the very word Turk as synonymous with ignorance, impoliteness, and idiocy. To call a man 'Turk' was regarded as a great dishonour to him.

   1928, Luṫfī Levonian, Moslem mentality: a discussion of the presentation of Christianity to Moslems, page 85

6. A member of a Mestee group in South Carolina.
7. A person from Llanelli, Wales.
8. A Turkish horse.
9. The plum curculio.

comparative more Turk · superlative most Turk · alternative Türk · alternative Túrk · alternative Turke

1. Synonym of Turkic.

   Kazakhstan is officially a bilingual country: Kazakh, a Turk language spoken natively by mainly the Kazakh population, has the status of the 'state' language, [...]

   2017, Karen Malone, Children in the Anthropocene

   Synonyms: Turkic

2. Synonym of Turkish.

   Synonyms: Turkish

alternative Türk · alternative Túrk · alternative Turke

1. A surname.