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. Ethnology. 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) is 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 Mohammedan caliphs of Baghdad, and founded the Seljúk dynasty in their room; the latter, after embracing Islám, 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 Eúrope (see sense 2).
Probably the name Turk appears in English first in connection with the Third Crusade, 1187–92. 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.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxiii. 5. Me thocht a Turk of Tartary Come throw the boundis of Barbary And lay forloppin in Lumbardy.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph., I. (Arb.), 80. Alter them the Turkes hauing an other name, but yet the same people, borne in Scythia.
1815. Elphinstone, 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.
a. 1833. Sir J. Malcolm, Life & Corr. (1856), I. vi. 91. We were now threatened with an invasion of Toorks and Tartars.
1843. Penny 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.
1877. Freeman, 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.
1898. Encycl. 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.
1899. J. 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. Politics. A member of the dominant race of the Ottoman empire; in earlier times, a Seljúk; since 1300, an Osmanli or Ottoman; one who is, or considers himself, a descendant of the Osmanlis or other Turks. Sometimes (now rarely), any subject of the Grand Turk or Turkish Sultan; but usually restricted to Mohammedans. Pl. The Turks, the Ottomans, the Turkish people.
13[?]. Coer de L., 5003. Thre thousand Turkes com, with bost, Betwen Jakes and his hoost.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxvi. (Nycholas), 591. Lang tyme eftyre with gret were, þe turkis thru iniquite distroyt þe towne of myrre [Myra].
c. 1400. Maundev. (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.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xiv. 348. We shall werre styll on goddys enmyes as ben turques & sarrasins.
1517. Torkington, Pilgr. (1884), 23. We war receyvyd by the Turkys and Sarrasyns.
1547. in Feuillerat, Revels Edw. VI. (1914), 11. Hedpeces to the same, turkes ffasshyon of blewe Red & yolowe sarcenet.
1599. Dallam, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakl. Soc.), 79. My drugaman … was a Turke, but a Cornish man borne.
1634. Cal. 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.
1644. Evelyn, Diary, 7 Oct. One Turke he much favor’d, who waited on him in his cabin.
a. 1658. J. Durham, Exp. Rev. v. ii. (1680), 275. To redcem so many of them from the bondage of the Turks.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., 140. The Turcs at our being there [Vienna] having taken Neuhausel.
1696. Phillips (ed. 5), Turk, a Subject of the Grand Signiors, who is also call’d the Great Turk.
1801. Med. Jrnl., V. 352. The debt which England and all Europe had contracted with the Turks for the inoculation of the Small-pox.
1847. Mrs. A. Kerr, trans. 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.
1888. Encycl. 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, the Turkish Sultan, the Grand Turk.
c. 1482. J. Kay, trans. Caoursin’s Siege of Rhodes, ¶ 3. In what tyme that thees thynges were thought and counseyled in Constantynople among the turke and his counseyle.
1561. New Calendar, 17 Jan., in Prayer-bk. Q. Eliz. (1890), 194. The good Prince Scanderbeg…, a scourge to the Turke.
1581. Allen, Apol., 18 b. Christians of al sortes,… and al other vnder the Turke.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., IV. vii. 73. The Turke that two and fiftie Kingdomes hath, Writes not so tedious a Stile as this. Ibid. (1605), Lear, II. iv. 94. Wine lou’d I deerely, Dice deerely; and in Woman, out-Paramour’d the Turke.
1735. Pope, Prol. Sat., 198. Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.
1896. N. Brit. Daily Mail, 17 June, 4. The unfortunate lands over which the Turk now exercises his baleful sway.
1893. Daily News, 7 Sept., 5/4. The Dervishes … animated by an implacable hatred or ‘The Turk,’ which is a comprehensive phrase applied to Egyptians and Englishmen alike.
1915. The Sun (N.Y.), 4 April, 48/1. War is the only thing that can rouse the Turk from his apathy.
c. The Grand or Great Turk, the Ottoman Sultan. Cf. the Great Khan, the Great Mogul.
c. 1482. J. Kay, trans. Caoursin’s Siege of Rhodes, ¶ 6. The turkes … saydyn that theyr lord the gret Turke was dede.
1503. Lett. Rich. III. & Hen. VII. (Rolls), I. 210. He said that the Grete Turke feared not the pope.
1563. Homilies, II. Place of Prayer, II. (1859), 348. The Enemie of our Lord Christ, the great Turke.
1615. Bedwell, Arab. Trudg., N iv. s.v. Sultan, For thus they now call the Great Turke,… The Souldan of Stamboli.
1689. Andros Tracts, I. 165. They were as Arbitrary as the great Turk.
1846. Huxley, in Life (1900), I. ii. 26. I am in a very fair way, and would snap my fingers at the Grand Turk.
1853. C. 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.)
1900. Chicago Tribune, 27 Jan., 1/2. Young Turks were preparing memorial to Ambassadors asking powers to intervene and demand reform in Turkey.
1908. Daily 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].
3. Often used as = Moslem or Mohammedan.
(The Turks being to Christian nations the typical Moslem power from c. 1300.)
a. 1548. Hall, 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.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 16. No Jew is capable to be a Turk but he must be first an Abdula a Christian.
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., II. 137. He is a Christian at Rome, a Heathen at Japan, and a Turk at Constantinople.
1725. Watts, 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.)
1592. Kyd, Sol. & Pers., III. v. What say these prisoners? will they turne Turke, or no?
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. ii. 287. If the rest of my Fortunes turne Turke with me.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., I. 54. No Iew can turne Turke, untill he first turne Christian.
1629. J. M., trans. Fonseca’s Devout Contempl., 403. The Souldier, he will turne Turke vpon point either of profit, or of honor.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., IV. 141. [He] turnd Turke, and was circumcised.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. 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. 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 or little Turk, an unmanageable or violent child or youth.
1536. Exhort. North, 56, in Furniv., Ballads fr. MSS., I. 306. Thes Sothorne turkes pervertyng owre lawe.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 42. Was neuer any Impe so wicked and barbarous, any Turke so vyle and brutishe.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Turk, any cruel hard-hearted Man.
a. 1845. Hood, 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.
1847. Helps, 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.]?
1854. N. & Q., 1st Ser. IX. 451/1. We often hear of people bad to manage being ‘regular Turks.’
1862. Spectator, 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.
1863. Frith, in Autobiog. & Remin. (1887), I. xxiv. 351. As to Prince William of Prussia, of all the little Turks he is one of the worst.
1874. Sir W. W. Hunter, in Life, xiii. (1901), 228. Mr. Lyall is a terrible Turk at keeping his wife up to her social duties.
1875. Anne 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.
1891. G. Meredith, One of our Conq., xxix. The tastes of the civilized man—a creature that is not clean-washed of the Turk in him.
1904. Police 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].
† 5. a. A human figure at which to practise shooting. b. A hideous image to frighten children; a bugbear. Obs.
1569. in 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.
1598. Florio, Manduco, a disguised or vglie picture vsed in shewes to make children afraid,… a turke, or a bug-beare.
1608. [see PRICK sb. 10 b].
1616. Manifest. 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.
1631. J. 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 saber, a scimitar (obs.).
1623. Markham, Cheap Husb., I. iii. (ed. 3), 42. The best Stallion to beget horses for the warres is the Courser, the Iennet, or the Turke.
1638. Whiting, Hist. Albino & B., 108. He forthwith unsheathd his trusty Turke, Cald forth that blood which in his veines did lurk.
1831. Youatt, 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.
7. attrib. or adj. = TURKISH; also in comb., as Turk-like adj. and adv., -ruled, -worked adjs. Also in possessive in names of plants, etc., as TURK’S CAP, TURK’S HEAD, Turk’s knife, Turk’s turban.
a. 1366[?]. Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 923. In his honde holdyng Turke bowes two, fulle wel deuysed had he.
1534. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., VI. 193, iij quarteris of taphety turke, price of the elne xiiij s.
1688. R. 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.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4435/4. To be sold…, a true Turk Stalion about 15 Hands high.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. (1788), 353. Turk’s Turban, Ranunculus.
a. 1791. Grose, Olio, Grumbler, xi. (1796), 44. The best parlour … was furnished with Turk-worked chairs.
1850. Browning, Christmas Eve, xviii. Or Turk-like brandishing a scimetar.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., Introd. 5. Adopting the Turk-like philosophy of this Scotchman!
1873. W. Cory, Lett. & Jrnls. (1897), 328. Frankified Turk-ruled Egyptians.
Hence Turkdom, the realm or domain of the Turks; Turkey. Young T., the party of Young Turks.
1855. W. Furniss, Landvoieglee, 232. In such company we felt still nearer to the Sublime Porte, and more open to the general influences of Turkdom and the Ottoman Empire.
1900. Eng. Hist. Rev., Jan., 150. For fifty years the whole of Turkdom was then more or less effectively administered by Chinese proconsuls.
1909. Vamdéry in 19th Cent., March, 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.
