Timur
/tɪˈmʊər/noun
Timur was a 14th-century Central Asian conqueror and founder of the Timurid Empire, also known in the West as Tamerlane.
Did you know?The European name Tamerlane derives from Persian Timur-i Lang, meaning “Timur the Lame,” referring to injuries he reportedly suffered before becoming a legendary conqueror.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Turkic
Proto-Turkic
*temür
“Iron; the reconstructed ancestral form behind later Turkic words for iron”
8th–9th Century
Old Turkic
temür / tämür
“Iron; a powerful material and personal-name element”
11th Century
Karakhanid Turkic
temür
“Iron, recorded in early Turkic lexicography”
14th Century
Chagatai Turkic
Temür
“Timur’s personal name, literally “Iron””
14th–15th Century
Persian
Tīmūr-i Lang
““Timur the Lame,” the epithet that became the source of the Western form Tamerlane”
Modern English
English
Timur
“The historical ruler’s name, also used as a personal name”