Tartary
(ˈtɑːtərɪ)
[a. F. Tartarie, ad. med.L. Tartaria, land of the Tartars: associated with Tartarus: hence sense 2.]
1. a. The country of the Tartars: see Tartar n.2
| c 1369 Chaucer Dethe Blaunche 1025 Ne sende men..into Tartarye..ne in-to Turkye. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxxiii. 5 Me thocht a Turk of Tartary Come throw the boundis of Barbary. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1858) 575 A part of the Great Karakathy, or Grand Tartary. 1886 T. L. Kington-Oliphant New English I. 536 From Tartary came hordas. |
† b. = tartar n.3
| c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xxiii. 247 Þei ben cloþed with precious cloþes of Tartarye & of cloþes of gold. |
† 2. Tartarus, as a region. Obs.
| c 1588 Spenser Virg. Gnat 543 Lastly the squalid lakes of Tartarie, And griesly Feends of hell him terrifie. 1591 Troub. Raigne K. John (1611) 59 Let the blacke tormentors of deep Tartary Vpbraide them with this damned enterprise. c 1620 T. Robinson Mary Magd. 735 Amonge ye blacker sonnes of Tartary, Seu'n hideous fiery sprights shee euocates. |
3. attrib. Tartary oat, a wild oat, Avena fatua, which has a loose inflorescence.
| 1790 S. Deane New-England Farmer 193/2 I have lately met with the Tartary oats, which..differ in their manner of growing. 1891 R. Wallace Rural Econ. Austral. & N.Z. xviii. 260 The straw is not so long or of such good quality as the straw of the Tartary Oat. |