tarpan

Meanings

nountarpan (plural tarpans)

plural tarpans

An extinct Northern European wild horse, Equus ferus ferus.
It’s possible that wild horses, known as tarpans, survived in southern Russia until the nineteenth century, but these may have been hybrids, with genes from domestic horses.
2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 256

Synonyms & antonyms

nounEuropean wild horse extinct since the early 20th century

Similar

Equus caballus gomelini

Broader

wild horse

Also see

wild horse

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Turkic
Russianтарпа́н
Englishtarpan

Borrowed from Russian тарпа́н (tarpán), from Turkic (Kazakh тарпаң (tarpaŋ) or Kyrgyz тарпан (tarpan)).

More words from Russian, Turkic

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

French tarpan

tarpanEquus ferus ferus

Hungarian tarpán

tarpánEquus ferus ferus

Italian tarpan

tarpanEquus ferus ferus

Polish tarpan

tarpanEquus ferus ferus

Portuguese tarpã

tarpãEquus ferus ferus

Russian тарпа́н

тарпа́н (tarpán)Equus ferus ferus

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with tarpan

sharpen tarpon

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Pantar trapan

Cite this entry

APA

tarpan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tarpan

MLA

“tarpan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tarpan. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tarpan,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tarpan.

Source: tarpan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.