Tungus
//ˈtʊŋɡʊs// name, noun
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A member of any Tungusic people.
- 2 the Tungusic language of the Evenki in eastern Siberia wordnet
- 3 a member of the Tungus speaking people who are a nomadic people widely spread over eastern Siberia; related to the Manchu wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 The Evenki language. dated, obsolete, possibly
Etymology
From Russian тунгус (tungus), * supposedly deriving from donki, a self-designation of certain Siberian groups, or alternatively from a Yakut name for the Evenki. * Or, of East Turkic origin, from tunguz (“wild boar, pig”), from Old Turkic [script needed] (tonguz), from Proto-Turkic *toŋuz. * A controversial theory further connects the word with Chinese 東胡 /东胡 (Dōnghú, “Donghu”, literally “Eastern barbarians”), an ancient people of North China. More at Tungusic.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.