Mongolian, a. and n.
(mɒŋˈgəʊlɪən)
Also 8 Mungalian, 9 Mongholian.
[f. Mongol + -ian.]
A. adj.
1. a. Pertaining to the Mongols, their country, language, etc.; = Mongol a. Also Mongolian lamb.
| 1738 tr. Strahlenberg's Descr. Russ., etc. (title-p.), A Vocabulary of the Kalmuck-Mungalian Tongue. Ibid. 139 After the Tartars had totally defeated the Mungalian Army. 1836 H. Murray, etc. Hist. & Descr. Acc. China I. ii. 39 The opinion which assigns to the Chinese a Tartar, or rather Mongolian lineage. 1862 Chamb. Encycl. IV. 692/1 The Mongolian goat. 1878 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 750/1 The Mongolian characters..are written perpendicularly from above downward. 1893 Lydekker Horns & Hoofs 182 The tseain or Mongolian gazelle. 1963 Sunday Express 27 Jan. 9/5 A Mongolian lamb hat. 1970 Vogue Jan. 22/3 A helmet of white Mongolian lamb. |
b. Mongolian hot-pot (see
quot. 1971).
| 1967 E. Hunt Danger Game viii. 152 He ate oysters at Lo Fan Shan and Mongolian Hotpot. 1968 Times 6 Jan. 20/5 The New Hong Kong..are serving a speciality called ‘bin lo’..a cross between Mongolian hotpot and Japanese sukiyaki. 1971 Good Food Guide 421 Mongolian hot-pot (a kind of Mandarin fondue bourguignonne, for which you do your own cooking at the table). |
2. Anthropology.
a. Belonging to the yellow-skinned straight-haired type of mankind (according to Blumenbach's classification).
Cf. Mongoloid.
| 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. I. 38 The Mongolian variety inhabits eastern Asia, Finland, and Lapland in Europe, and includes the Esquimaux of North America. 1834 Penny Cycl. II. 473/1 The white (or Caucasian), the yellow (or Mongolian), and the black (or Ethiopian). 1903 Blackw. Mag. Mar. 372 Their features are decidedly Mongolian. |
b. Mongolian fold = epicanthus; so
Mongolian eye, one with an epicanthus.
| 1913 [see epicanthus]. 1926 H. H. Wilder Pedigree of Human Race v. 298 It follows that it is not the Mongolian eye that is racial. 1927 Peake & Fleure Priests & Kings xii. 192 The head is..relatively low and rounded with, in many individuals, flattened features and the additional or ‘Mongolian’ fold of the eyelid. 1935 Huxley & Haddon We Europeans iv. 117 A fold of skin, the ‘epicanthic fold’, covers the inner angle of the eye. This gives the effect known as the ‘Mongolian eye’. 1964 New Statesman 10 Apr. 559/1 A quick and painless operation will..remove the young lady's Mongolian fold. |
3. Applied to a person born with the condition known as
mongolism. Also with lower-case initial.
| 1866 J. L. H. Down in Clin. Lect. & Rep. (London Hospital) III. 260, I have for some time had my attention directed to the possibility of making a classification of the feeble-minded, by arranging them around various ethnic standards... The great Mongolian family has numerous representatives, and it is to this division, I wish..to call special attention. A very large number of congenital idiots are typical Mongols. Ibid. 261 The Mongolian type of idiocy occurs in more than ten per cent. of the cases which are presented to me. 1890 Jrnl. Mental Sci. XXXVI. 189 Mongolian imbeciles. 1892 J. L. Down in Tuke Dict. Psychol. Med. II. 644 Ten per cent. of all cases of idiocy arrange themselves around a highly characteristic type which the writer has proposed to call the Mongolian variety. 1904 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 17 Sept. 679 The histological examination of two brains of Mongolian idiots. 1965 [see Down's syndrome]. |
4. Mongolian pheasant, a variety of pheasant,
Phasianus colchicus mongolicus, native to southern Russia and Mongolia, introduced to other countries early in the twentieth century; also called the Kirghiz pheasant; also
ellipt.;
Mongolian spot, a bluish or brownish spot found,
usu. singly, in the sacral region of nearly all new-born babies of Oriental races (and
occas. in other races), and which
usu. disappears in two or three years.
| 1903 W. Rothschild in Field 20 June 1033/3 The bird known in America as the Mongolian pheasant is not the Phasianus mongolicus of Brandt, but the Phasianus colchicus, var. mongolicus of Pallas, otherwise our common Chinese ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus torquatus) Linné. Ibid. 1033/6, I have had a number of the true Mongolian pheasant (Phasianus mongolicus) alive at Tring for two years. 1909 J. G. Millais Nat. Hist. Brit. Game Birds 104 If the pure and cross-bred Mongolians have a fault it is a tendency to stray more than other pheasants. 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 23 Oct. 18/1 This boy [sc. an old cock pheasant] looked like a Mongolian, seemed too dark for an ordinary ringneck. 1963 D. A. Bannerman Birds Brit. Isles XII. 338 The Kirghiz pheasant Phasianus mongolicus Brandt. Commonly (but incorrectly) named the Mongolian pheasant, is distinguished by the broad white-ring around the neck interrupted in front, having the mantle, chest and breast bronzy orange-red... Introduced into England for Lord Rothschild in 1900. 1965 Observer (Colour Suppl.) 10 Oct. 33/2 There's a Mongolian there..a fine ring neck... That old bird he always roosts in that apple tree there. |
| 1907 Arch. Pediatrics XXIV. 428 His findings led him..to a special study of the morphology of the ‘Mongolian’ spot. 1966 Wright & Symmers Systemic Path. II. xxxix. 1507/1 The blue naevus..is analogous to the ‘Mongolian spot’, but may occur in any race and on any part of the body. 1969 Beaver Spring 49/1 A baby's pale Mongolian spots are patted lovingly. |
B. n. a. A native of Mongolia; a
Mongol. b. One of the Mongolian race of mankind (see A. 2).
c. The language of the Mongols.
| 1846 J. Bell's Geog., Asiat. Russ. iii. IV. 176 They speak a very rude dialect of Mongolian. 1854 R. G. Latham in Orr's Circ. Sci., Org. Nat. I. 316 The Mongolians are the most nomadic of populations. Ibid. 317 Zingis-Khan was a Mongolian and not a Turk. 1905 Blackw. Mag. Mar. 341/1 The white officers bade the chattering Mongolians cease their clavers. |