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Turk, n.1|tɜːk| Also 4–7 Turke, 5 turque, 7 Turc; 9 Toork (sense 1). [= F. Turc, fem. turque, It., Sp., Pg. Turco, -a, med.L. Turcus, -a, Byz. Gr. τοῦρκος, Pers. (and Arab.) turk. A national name of unknown origin. Possibly the same as the Chinese equivalent Tu-kin, applied to a division of the Hiong-nu (identified by Deguigne with the Huns), who occupied the country south of the Altaian mountains c 177 b.c. (In Persian dicts. turk is explained as ‘A Turk, a beautiful youth, a barbarian, a robber’, but the last three definitions are only applications of the national name, not explanations of its original meaning.)] 1. Ethnol. Pl. Turks. The name of a numerous and widely spread family of the human race, occupying from prehistoric times large parts of Central Asia, and speaking a language and dialects belonging to the Turkic branch of the Ural-Altaic (Finno-Tartar, or Turanian) linguistic family (a primary family of co-ordinate rank with the Indo-European or Aryan, and Semitic). Within this linguistic family the Turks are usually held to stand between the Ugrians and Mongols, having closest relationship to the latter group. The form Toork or Tourk (after Persian) has been used by some (esp. in India) in this wide sense. From their original home in Central Asia, chiefly from Turkestan, hordes of Turks at various times assailed and conquered other lands. Of these, the best known in the West were those calling themselves, after famous leaders, Seljúk and Osmānli respectively. The former overthrew the Abbasides, or first Muslim caliphs of Baghdad, and founded the Seljúk dynasty in their room; the latter, after embracing Islām, and receiving much Persian and Arab culture, arose on the ruins of the Seljúk empire in a.d. 1300 and became the ancestors of the Osmanli or Ottoman Turks in Asia and south-eastern Europe (see sense 2). Probably the name Turk appears in English first in connexion with the Third Crusade, 1187–1192. The Turks of that date were Seljúks, not Ottomans. Saladin, the antagonist of Richard I, was a Kurd, originally in the service of the Seljúks. In the wider sense 1, the name is of comparatively late use in English and the European langs. generally, the Turks of Central Asia being unknown in Western Europe.
1500–20Dunbar Poems xxxiii. 5 Me thocht a Turk of Tartary Come throw the boundis of Barbary And lay for⁓loppin in Lumbardy. 1545R. Ascham Toxoph. i. (Arb.) 80 After them the Turkes hauing an other name, but yet the same people, borne in Scythia. 1815Elphinstone Acc. Caubul (1842) I. 417 The Kuzzilbaushes are members of that colony of Toorks which now predominates in Persia. I call them by this name (which is usually given them at Caubul)... They speak Persian, and among themselves Toorkee. Ibid. II. 185 That great division of the human race which is known in Asia by the name of Toork, and which, with the Moguls and Manshoors, compose what we call the Tartar nation. Each of these divisions has its separate language, and that of the Toorks is widely diffused throughout the west of Asia. a1833Sir J. Malcolm Life & Corr. (1856) I. vi. 91 We were now threatened with an invasion of Toorks and Tartars. 1843Penny Cycl. XXV. 395/1 The Turks-Osmanlis are a branch of the Turks in the larger meaning of the word. Ibid., We cannot precisely ascertain when the Turks (..in the larger meaning of the word) first appeared in Europe. Ibid., The Káyi,..the most illustrious of all [the Turkish tribes], because the Turks-Osmanlis descend from them. 1877Freeman Ottoman Power in Europe vii. 286 It is..in the Anatolian peninsula only, that the Turk is really at home. The Ottoman is hardly at home even there; but the Turk, the representative of the earlier and better Turkish races, is at home. 1888Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 658/2 The use of the name ‘Turks’ has never been limited in a clear and definite way from the time of the Byzantine authors to the present day. To the former, as also to the Arabs, it has a collective sense like Scythians or Huns. Ibid., The Kirghiz..are considered as the typical Turks of the present day, and are described..as being midway between the Mongol and the Caucasian. 1899J. T. Bealby in Times Gazetteer 1613/2 Thirty years later [than 1017] the Turks—not the Ottomans (Osmanlis), but their predecessors, the Seljuks—invaded the Byzantine Empire for the first time. 2. a. A native or inhabitant of Turkey; formerly, a member of the dominant race of the Ottoman empire; sometimes extended to any subject of the Grand Turk or Turkish Sultan, but usually restricted to Muslims; in earlier times, a Seljúk; from 1300, an Osmanli or Ottoman; one who was, or considered himself, a descendant of the Osmanlis or other Turks. Pl. the Turks, the Turkish people; (now Hist.) the Ottomans.
13..Coer de L. 5003 Thre thousand Turkes com, with bost, Betwen Jakes and his hoost. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xxvi. (Nycholas) 591 Lang tyme eftyre with gret were, þe turkis thru iniquite distroyt þe towne of myrre [Myra]. c1400Mandeville (1839) iv. 26 [Rodes] was wont to be clept Collos; and so callen it the Turkes ȝit. Ibid. xiii. 145 But a gret man þat he [the Greek Emperour] sente for to kepe the contree aȝenst the Turkes vsurped the lond & helde it to him self, & cleped him Emperour of Trapazond. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon xiv. 348 We shall werre styll on goddys enmyes as ben turques & sarrasins. 1517R. Torkington Pilgr. (1884) 23 We war receyvyd by the Turkys and Sarrasyns. 1547in Feuillerat Revels Edw. VI (1914) 11 Hedpeces to the same, turkes ffasshyon of blewe Red & yolowe sarcenet. 1599Dallam in Early Voy. Levant (Hakl. Soc.) 79 My drugaman.. was a Turke, but a Cornish man borne. 1634Cal. St. Papers, Dom. 31 May (1864) 44 Complaints out of the west country of divers outrages lately committed in those parts by Turks and pirates. 1644Evelyn Diary 7 Oct., One Turke he much favor'd, who waited on him in his cabin. a1658J. Durham Exp. Rev. v. ii. (1680) 275 To redeem so many of them from the bondage of the Turks. 1673Ray Journ. Low C. 140 The Turcs at our being there [Vienna] having taken Neuhausel. 1696Phillips (ed. 5), Turk, a Subject of the Grand Signiors, who is also call'd the Great Turk. 1801Med. Jrnl. V. 352 The debt which England and all Europe had contracted with the Turks for the inoculation of the Small-pox. 1847Mrs. A. Kerr tr. Ranke's Hist. Servia 24 The Servians, the Bosnians..and the Albanians, once more stood united against the Osmanlis. But the Turks were stronger than all these nations combined. 1888Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 658/2 At the present day we are wont to restrict the name to the Osmanli Turks, though they themselves refuse to be called Turks, having..ceased to be such in becoming imbued with Arabo-Persian culture. On the other hand when we speak of Uigurs and Tatars, we mean tribes who style themselves Turks and really are such. b. the Turk, comprehensively or collectively: the Turks; the Turkish power; also (Hist.), the Turkish Sultan, the Grand Turk.
c1482J. Kay tr. Caoursin's Siege of Rhodes ⁋3 In what tyme that thees thynges were thought and counseyled in Constantynople among the turke and his counseyle. 1561New Calendar 17 Jan. in Prayer-bk. Q. Eliz. (1890) 194 The good Prince Scanderbeg.., a scourge to the Turke. 1581Allen Apol. 18 b, Christians of al sortes,..and al other vnder the Turke. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iv. vii. 73 The Turke that two and fiftie Kingdomes hath, Writes not so tedious a Stile as this. 1605― Lear iii. iv. 94. 1735 Pope Prol. Sat. 198 Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne. 1896N. Brit. Daily Mail 17 June 4 The unfortunate lands over which the Turk now exercises his baleful sway. 1898Daily News 7 Sept. 5/4 The Dervishes..animated by an implacable hatred of ‘The Turk’, which is a comprehensive phrase applied to Egyptians and Englishmen alike. c. the Grand Turk or Great Turk, the Ottoman Sultan. Cf. the Great Khan, the Great Mogul. Now only Hist.
c1482J. Kay tr. Caoursin's Siege of Rhodes ⁋6 The turkes..saydyn that theyr lord the gret Turke was dede. 1503Lett. Rich. III & Hen. VII (Rolls) I. 210 He said that the Grete Turke feared not the pope. 1563Homilies ii. Place of Prayer ii. (1859) 348 The Enemie of our Lord Christ, the great Turke. 1615Bedwell Arab. Trudg. N iv. s.v. Sultan, For thus they now call the Great Turke,..The Souldan of Stamboli. 1689Andros Tracts I. 165 They were as Arbitrary as the great Turk. 1846Huxley in Life (1900) I. ii. 26, I am in a very fair way, and would snap my fingers at the Grand Turk. 1853C. Brontë Villette iii, He was more than the Grand Turk in her estimation. †d. Applied vaguely to Saracens. Obs.
13..Coer de L. 4971 Thre thousand Turkes com at the last, With bowe Turkeys, and arweblaste. e. Young Turks, a name given in the 20th century to the Ottomans who tried to rejuvenate the Turkish empire, and bring it more into line with European ideas: opposed to Old Turks who were against such ideals. (See also sense 4.) Also transf. (sometimes with lower-case initials): any group of young or relatively young men full of new ideas and impatient for change; esp. a radical or ‘progressive’ element in a political party. Occas. sing.
1908Daily News 5 Aug. 4/7 Will the glorification of the ‘Young Turk’ kill this expression as one of reproach to be used in the nursery? 1909[see Turkdom below]. c1929in W. Safire New Lang. Politics (1968) 496/2 These new Republican warriors were called the Young Turks, a band of about 20 who had mutinied against the feeble leadership of the Old Guard. For Senators they were young men (average age: 56). 1953W. S. Churchill in Ibid. 497/2 You're just like the Young Turks in my government. 1963D. Ogilvy Confessions Advert. Man (1964) ii. 24 In hiring, the emphasis will be on youth. We are looking for young turks. 1971A. Mizener Saddest Story 331 E. E. Cummings and Pound..were writers little calculated to attract the Young Turks, for whom they would seem elder statesmen of the modern movement. 1981J. Dunning Deadline (1982) xvii. 160 Malcolm Dawes had been a career man. He was a young turk, graduating from the FBI Academy in 1952. 3. a. Often used as = Muslim. (The Turks being to Christian nations the typical Muslim power from c 1300.)
a1548Hall Chron., Edw. IV 233 He..hated hym more then a Panym or a Turke. 1548–9(Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Collect Gd. Friday, Haue mercy upon all Jewes, Turkes, Infidels, and heretikes. c1645Howell Lett. (1650) II. 16 No Jew is capable to be a Turk but he must be first an Abdula a Christian. 1697Collier Ess. Mor. Subj. ii. 137 He is a Christian at Rome, a Heathen at Japan, and a Turk at Constantinople. 1725Watts Logic i. vi. §10 A divine distributes [mankind] into Turks, Heathens, Jews, or Christians. b. In to turn Turk, become Turk, and similar phrases. (But also used in senses 2 and 4.)
1592Kyd Sol. & Pers. iii. v, What say these prisoners? will they turne Turke, or no? 1602Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 287 If the rest of my Fortunes turne Turke with me. 1615G. Sandys Trav. i. 54 No Iew can turne Turke, untill he first turne Christian. 1629J. M. tr. Fonseca's Dev. Contempl. 403 The Souldier, he will turne Turke vpon point either of profit, or of honor. 1632Lithgow Trav. iv. 141 [He] turnd Turke, and was circumcised. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 42 Many are perswaded, that when a Jew turns Turk, he must first become Christian, which is very false. 1737[S. Berington] G. di Lucca's Mem. (1738) 282 He offered to turn Turk if they would spare him. 4. transf. a. Applied to any one having qualities attributed to the Turks; a cruel, rigorous, or tyrannical man; any one behaving as a barbarian or savage; one who treats his wife hardly; a bad-tempered or unmanageable man. Often, with alliterative qualification, terrible Turk; young Turk or little Turk, an unmanageable or violent child or youth.
1536Exhort. North 56 in Furniv. Ballads fr. MSS. I. 306 Thes Sothorne turkes pervertyng owre lawe. 1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 42 Was neuer any Impe so wicked and barbarous, any Turke so vyle and brutishe. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Turk, any cruel hard-hearted Man. a1845Hood Lay Real Life v, Who said my mother was a Turk, And took me home—and made me work, But managed half my meals to shirk? My Aunt. 1847Helps Friends in C. Ser. i. vii. 114 Why you Mahometan, you Turk of a lawyer—would you do away with all the higher things of courtesy, tenderness for the weaker [etc.]? 1854N. & Q. 1st Ser. IX. 451/1 We often hear of people bad to manage being ‘regular Turks’. 1862Spectator 6 Dec. 1363/1 The new generation of Greeks have a real passion for education; without it they say a man is a ‘Turk’, that last epithet of opprobrium. 1863Frith in Autobiog. & Remin. (1887) I. xxiv. 351 As to Prince William of Prussia, of all the little Turks he is one of the worst. 1874Sir W. W. Hunter in Life xiii. (1901) 228 Mr. Lyall is a terrible Turk at keeping his wife up to her social duties. 1875A. Mozley Ess. fr. Blackwood 217 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. 1891G. Meredith One of our Conq. xxix, The tastes of the civilized man—a creature that is not clean-washed of the Turk in him. 1904Police Magistrate in Daily News 26 Nov. 9/2 ‘You are a young Turk, and a bad Turk, too;..I think I ought to send you to a reformatory school.’ 1908[see 2 e]. b. A person of Irish birth or descent. slang (usu. depreciatory). Chiefly U.S. In this sense perh. really a derivative of Ir. torc boar, hog, as suggested by W. A. McLaughlin (Dialect Notes (1914) IV. 147–8); but cf. turkey n.2 6 b.
1914in Dialect Notes IV. 148 You Italians have the votes, but it takes us Turks to run the government. 1945Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 603 Turk is used among Roman Catholic priests in the United States to designate a colleague of Irish birth. 1959Observer 1 Mar. 10/1 Their backs are to the wall in a desperate tyre-chain feudal war to protect the integrity of their declining manor against the invasion of ‘bubbles and squeaks’ (Greeks and Cypriots), ‘turks’ (Irish) and ‘spades’ (coloureds). 1971S. Houghton Current Prison Slang (MS.) 17 Turk, Paddy, Irishman. †5. a. A human figure at which to practise shooting. b. A hideous image to frighten children; a bugbear. Obs.
1569in Camden's Hist. Eliz. (1717) Pref. 29 The shotinge with the brode arrowe, the shotinge at the twelve skore prick, the shotinge at the Turke. 1598Florio, Manduco, a disguised or vglie picture vsed in shewes to make children afraid,..a turke, or a bug-beare. 1608[see prick n. 10 b]. 1616Manifest. Abp. Spalato's Motives App. iii. 7 All the rest were but painted posts, and Turkes of ten pence, to fill and adorne the shooting-field. 1631J. Burges Answ. Rejoined 182 The Replier hath set vp a man of cloutes of his owne making, and then shootes at a Turke, as boyes doe. 6. a. A Turkish or Turkey horse. †b. A Turkish sword or sabre, a scimitar (obs.).
1623Markham Cheap Husb. i. iii. (ed. 3) 42 The best Stallion to beget horses for the warres is the Courser, the Iennet, or the Turke. 1638Whiting Hist. Albino & B. 108 He forthwith unsheathd his trusty Turke, Cald forth that blood which in his veines did lurk. 1831Youatt Horse iii. 29 Charles II sent his master of the horse to the Levant, to purchase brood mares and stallions. These were principally Barbs and Turks. c. A Turkish cigarette.
1926‘Sapper’ Final Count iii. 65 Why the devil don't you smoke a Corona Corona, you fool! Put out that Turk. 1935N. Marsh Enter Murderer vi. 71 Cigarette? These are Turks. 1965‘R. Erskine’ Passion Flowers in Business v. 60 Fat, oval Turks in a Wedgwood box. 7. attrib. or adj. = Turkish; also in comb., as Turk-like adj. and adv., Turk-ruled, Turk-worked adjs. Also in possessive in names of plants, etc., as Turk's cap, Turk's head, Turk's knife, Turk's turban.
a1366Chaucer Rom. Rose 923 In his honde holdyng Turke bowes two, fulle wel deuysed had he. 1534Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. VI. 193, iij quarteris of taphety turke, price of the elne xiiij s. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. xiv. (Roxb.) 3/2 These are called Turks knives because they turne vpward in the back towards the end, or point of the blade. 1708Lond. Gaz. No. 4435/4 To be sold.., a true Turk Stalion about 15 Hands high. 1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. (1788) 353 Turk's Turban, Ranunculus. a1791Grose Olio, Grumbler xi. (1796) 44 The best parlour..was furnished with Turk-worked chairs. 1850Browning Christmas Eve xviii, Or Turk-like brandishing a scimetar. 1857Livingstone Trav. Introd. 5 Adopting the Turk-like philosophy of this Scotchman! 1873W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 328 Frankified Turk-ruled Egyptians. Hence ˈTurkdom, the realm or domain of the Turks; Turkey. Young T., the party of Young Turks.
1900Eng. Hist. Rev. Jan. 150 For fifty years the whole of Turkdom was then more or less effectively administered by Chinese proconsuls. 1909Vambéry in 19th Cent. Mar. 371 The whole Turkish nation, with very few exceptions, belongs to Young Turkdom. Every one who feels Turkish and speaks Turkish is a Young Turk. |