English Explanatory Dictionary

Turkmen

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. A Turkic language of the Turkmen spoken mostly in Turkmenistan.
noun
  1. A person from Turkmenistan or of Turkmen descent.
adj
  1. Of, from, or pertaining to Turkmenistan, the Turkmen people or the Turkmen language.
noun
  1. plural of Turkman

Pronunciation

/ˈtɜːk.mən/ /ˈtɝk.mən/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-Turkmen.wav

Word forms

Turkmen Turcoman Turkoman Turkman Turkmán Türkman Türkmen Turkmens

Etymology

The current majority view for the etymology of the ethnonym Türkmen or Turcoman is that it comes from Türk and the Turkic emphasizing suffix -men, meaning "'most Turkish of the Turks' or 'pure-blooded Turks.'" A folk etymology, dating back to the Middle Ages and found in al-Biruni and Mahmud al-Kashgari, instead derives the suffix -men from the Persian suffix -mānind, with the resulting word meaning "like a Turk". While formerly the dominant etymology in modern scholarship, this mixed Turkic-Persian derivation is now viewed as incorrect.

Related words

Turcoman Turkoman Turkmenistan
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