Kazakh
/ˈkɑːzɑːk/noun
A member of a Turkic people of Central Asia, or the language they speak.
Did you know?The name is historically tied to the Turkic root *qazaq*, meaning a “free, independent person” or “adventurer,” a term that later became associated with roaming warrior bands and then the Kazakh people.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Turkic
PT
*qazaq
“an independent person; freebooter; wanderer”
15th Century
Turkic
qazaq
“a person who has left his group; adventurer, vagabond, warrior”
16th Century
Russian
kazak
“Cossack; member of frontier warrior communities”
17th–18th Century
European
kazak / Cossack
“frontier soldier, horseman; later a specific ethnonym in Eastern Europe and Central Asia”
Modern English
English
Kazakh
“a member of the Kazakh people or the Kazakh language”