Tungus
Americannoun
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a member of a formerly nomadic Mongoloid people of E Siberia
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Also called: Evenki. the language of this people, belonging to the Tungusic branch of the Altaic family
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Tungus
1620–30; ≪ Russian tungús, probably < Tatar, a formation with the Turkic suffix *-guz, used in ethnic names; identity of 1st element obscure
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It is their carefully detailed attempt to account for the incredible crash that rocked the Tungus region of Siberia over half a century ago.
From Time Magazine Archive
An elderly Tungus, in attendance on the shaman, was drying a drum at the fire meanwhile.
From Tales by Polish Authors by Various
Reasons have already been advanced for supposing that the Chukchi were a Tungus people who came originally from the Amur basin.
From Man, Past and Present by Haddon, Alfred Court
The most numerous are the Buriats, Tungus, and Kalmuks, who lead nomadic lives, and for occupation rear their herds, hunt, and fish.
From Empires and Emperors of Russia, China, Korea, and Japan Notes and Recollections by Monsignor Count Vay de Vaya and Luskod by Vay, P?ter
They talked without animation; jokes and laughter, so beloved by the Tungus, were checked by a general sense of depression, and only rarely indulged in.
From Tales by Polish Authors by Various
Here the winter was passed among a tribe of Tunguses Irving on the spot, who owned no reindeer, and were therefore settled.
From The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II by Leslie, Alexander, fl. 1879-1882
Here the voyagers landed to get information about the fairway, but could not enter into communication with the natives, because they were Tunguses.
From The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II by Leslie, Alexander, fl. 1879-1882
The Tunguses of Siberia have so much habitual politeness that Wrangell called them "the French of the tundra."
From Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals by Sumner, William Graham
Yet he might have found in Witsen that the Reindeer are ridden by various Siberian Tribes, but especially by the Tunguses.
From The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Yule, Henry
Nearly all the Siberian squirrelskins which reach the European market are bought by Russian traders from Wandering Tunguses around the Okhotsk Sea.
From Tent Life in Siberia by Kennan, George
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
