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
I remember how vainly I tried to make some of my Tungus friends understand our civilization of individualism: they could not, and they resorted to the most fantastical suggestions.
From Mutual Aid; a factor of evolution by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
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
He ate heartily and with relish, for, according to Tungus ideas, no event in life is great enough to deprive a fat reindeer of its savouriness.
From Tales by Polish Authors by Various
I also did not see the 'demons,'—the dry Tungus corpses.
From Tales by Polish Authors by Various
Few of the Tunguses or Lamutkis own many deer.
From Tent Life in Siberia by Kennan, George
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
East of the Yenisei are the Tunguses, a small people divided into "settled," "horse," "reindeer," and "dog" Tunguses, according to the domestic animal of most importance to their mode of life.
From From Pole to Pole A Book for Young People by Hedin, Sven Anders
The Lamutkis, who are first cousins to the Tunguses, are fewer in number, but live in precisely the same way.
From Tent Life in Siberia by Kennan, George
The Tunguses, however, use their few deer to better advantage and in a greater variety of ways than do the Koraks.
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.
