Kipchak
/kɪpˈtʃæk/noun
A member of a medieval Turkic-speaking confederation that dominated parts of the Eurasian steppe, or the language associated with it.
Did you know?The Kipchak language became a major literary language of the medieval Mamluk world, and the 14th-century Codex Cumanicus preserves vocabulary from this wider steppe tradition.
Etymological Timeline
8th–10th Century
Old Turkic
Qïpčaq
“The earliest recorded or reconstructed form of the ethnonym; its original meaning is uncertain.”
11th Century
Arabic and Persian
Qifjāq / Qïfčāq
“Forms used by Muslim geographers and historians for a powerful Turkic steppe confederation.”
11th–13th Century
Eastern European languages
Polovtsi / Polovtsy
“A Slavic designation for the Kipchaks, commonly translated as “the blond ones” or “pale ones,” though its precise origin is debated.”
13th–14th Century
Latin and Italian
Cumanus / Cumani
“European forms referring to the Cumans, a closely associated or overlapping western branch of the Kipchak confederation.”
14th Century
Mamluk Kipchak
Qipchaq
“The name used in grammatical and lexicographical works describing the Kipchak Turkic language.”
Modern English
English
Kipchak
“The conventional English name for the historical people, confederation, and language.”
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