Mongolian

Origin

Originally from Mongol + -ian, a translation of the German mongalisch (1706). Subsequently, from the name of the country of Mongolia + -an.

Full definition of Mongolian

Adjective

1. Of or relating to Mongolia or its peoples, languages, or cultures = Mongol.
• 1706 - Evert Y. Ides: Three years travels from Moscow over-land to China...He had a Sister, which according to the Mongalian custom lived in the devoted spiritual state.
• 1878 - Encyclopedia Britannica, ninth edition, volume XVIThe Mongolian characters...are written perpendicularly from above downward.
• 1985 - Robert Whelan: Robert Capa: A BiographyHe usually had a heavy growth of dark stubble that made him look...rather like a Mongolian bandit.
2. Anthropology. Resembling or having some of the characteristic physical features of the Mongoloid racial type = Mongoloid.
• 1828 - John Stark: Elements of natural historyThe Mongolian variety inhabits eastern Asia, Finland, and Lapland in Europe, and includes the Esquimaux of North America.
• 1834 - Penny cyclopædia of the Society for the diffusion of useful knowledge, volume IIThe white (or Caucasian), the yellow (or Mongolian), and the black (or Ethiopian)
• 1990 - Louis de Bernières: ''The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether PartsIt was not so much their Mongolian features that impressed everyone...
3. (now rare, offensive) Designating or affected with Down syndrome = Mongol.Spelling: Also mongolian.
• 1866 - John Langdon Haydon Down in Clinical lectures and reports by the medical and surgical staff of the London Hospital, volume IIThe Mongolian type of idiocy occurs in more than ten per cent. of the cases which are presented to me.
• 1965 - H. Eldon Sutton: An introduction to human geneticsThe condition known as trisomy 21 syndrome or mongolian idiocy (sometimes referred to as Down's syndrome) had long been an enigma.

Derived terms

• Mongolian gazelle
• Mongolian gerbil
• Mongolian lamb
• Mongolian pheasant
• Mongolian spot
• Mongolian wild ass

Noun

1. A native or inhabitant of Mongolia = Mongol.
• 1757, John Dyer: The fleece, a poem (published in 1807):The Cossac there, The Calmuc, and Mungalian, round the bales In crowds resort.
• 1763, John Bell, A journey from St. Petersburg to Pekin:This day we saw some scattered tents of Mongalians, with their flocks.
• 1854, Robert G. Latham, in Orr's Circle of the sciences: Organic nature:The Mongolians are the most nomadic of populations.
• 1990 September 1, New Scientist:Mongolians now regard animal husbandry as a low-status occupation.
2. A group of Altaic languages from Mongolia, specifically Khalkha, the official language of Mongolia.
• 1926, Neville J. Whymant: A Mongolian Grammar:Khalka ... Mongolian possesses seven vowels and twenty consonants.
• 1987. David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language:The Altaic family ... comprises about 40 languages, classified into three groups: Turkic, Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungus.
• 1990 April, Orientations:These inscriptions are in Mongolian and thus widen the appliqué's international connections.
3. A person of Mongoloid physical type; a Mongoloid.
• 1823 July, North American Revolution:A particular individual which the latter considered a Mongolian and the former assures us is an Ethiopian.
• 1938, Franz Boas, et al., General Anthropology:Extreme forms like the Australians, Negroes, Mongolians, and Europeans may be described as races because each has certain characteristics which set them off from other groups, and which are strictly hereditary.
• 1988, Current Anthropology, volume 29:The thesis of this work was that native Americans were one race distinct from Eskimos and Mongolians.

Related terms

• Mongol
• Mongolia
• Mongoloid