Uighur
/ˈwiːɡər/noun
A member of a predominantly Muslim Turkic people native to Central and East Asia, especially the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.
Did you know?The name appears in several historical forms, including Old Turkic Uyγur and Chinese 回鹘, but scholars continue to debate whether it originally meant “united,” “allied,” or something else.
Etymological Timeline
7th–8th Century
Old Turkic
Uyγur
“The ethnonym used for the Uyghur people in Old Turkic inscriptions and records.”
8th–9th Century
Chinese
回鹘 / 回紇
“Chinese transcriptions of the Uyghur name, used in imperial historical records.”
9th–13th Century
Middle Turkic
Uyğur
“The continuing Turkic form of the ethnic name after the Uyghur Khaganate’s fall.”
13th–17th Century
Persian and Chagatai
Uyghūr / Uyġur
“Forms preserved in Persianate and Central Asian literary and historical traditions.”
19th Century
English
Uighur
“The spelling adopted in English from European and Central Asian sources.”
Modern English
English
Uighur
“An established English variant of Uyghur, the now-preferred romanization in many contexts.”