Turk
Pronunciation Noun

Turk (plural Turks)

  1. A person from Turkey or of Turkish ethnic descent.
  2. A speaker of the various Turkic languages.
  3. (obsolete) A Muslim.
    • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act 3, scene 2], page 268 ↗, column 2:
      Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers—if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me—with two Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players?
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:
      Compare but our manners unto a Turke {{transterm
    • It is no good reason for a man's religion that he was born and brought up in it; for then a Turk would have as much reason to be a Turk as a Christian to be a Christian.
  4. (archaic) A bloodthirsty and savage person; vandal; barbarian. [from 16th c.]
    • 1579, John Lyly, Euphues, page 42 ↗:
      Was neuer any Impe so wicked and barbarous, any Turke so vyle and brutishe.
    • 1760, Tobias George Smollett (editor), The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature, Volume 9, page 20 ↗:
      A sort of primitive barbarity distinguishes the whole; no variety of character appears; and to call a man Turk is to say, that he is jealous, haughty, covetous, ignorant, and lascivious; at the same time that a certain dignity of gait, and magnificence of manners, gives him the appearance of generosity and true greatness of soul.
    • 1906, George Meredith, One of our conquerors, page 292 ↗:
      As much as the wilfully or naturally blunted, the intelligently honest have to learn by touch: only, their understandings cannot meanwhile be so wholly obtuse as our society's matron, acting to please the tastes of the civilized man—a creature that is not clean-washed of the Turk in him—barbarously exacts.
    • 1928, Luṫfī Levonian, Moslem mentality: a discussion of the presentation of Christianity to Moslems, [http://www.google.am/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=%22call+a+man+turk%22+%22Moslem+mentality%22#hl=en&q=%22To+call+a+man+'Turk'+was+regarded+as%22&safe=off&tbm=bks page 85]:
      They regarded the very word Turk as synonymous with ignorance, impoliteness, and idiocy. To call a man 'Turk' was regarded as a great dishonour to him.
  5. A member of a Mestee group in South Carolina.
  6. A person from Llanelli, Wales.
  7. A Turkish horse.
  8. The plum curculio.
Translations Translations
  • Russian: тюрк
  • Spanish: turco
Translations


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