Manchuria

Meanings

1. A region of northeastern China comprising the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang and the northeastern part of Inner Mongolia.
2. The area traditionally inhabited by the Manchu people and their Jurchen predecessors, in modern China and Russia.
3. Synonym of Manchukuo: a former puppet state of Imperial Japan.

Etymology

Probably originally a backformation from Manchurian (“of or relating to the Manchus”), from Dutch Mansiourische, from Mansiouwer (“a Manchu”) + -isch (“-ish: forming adjectives”), possibly as a calque of Japanese 満州 (まんしゅう, Manshū, “Manchuria; Manchurian”). Equivalent to New Latin and English Manchu + -ia, with the r added for ease of pronunciation under the influence of names like Etruria, Liguria, &c. Cf. French Mandchourie, German Mandschurei, &c. Further popularized by Philipp von Siebold's early-19th-century Dutch translations of Japanese maps employing the term, replacing the earlier and vaguer Tartary, Eastern Tartary, Chinese Tartary, &c.