Urals
/ˈjʊərəlz/noun
A mountain range extending through western Russia and forming part of the conventional boundary between Europe and Asia.
Did you know?The ultimate origin of Ural remains disputed; scholars have proposed Turkic and Indigenous Uralic-language sources, so confident mystical translations are not historically secure.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-modern period
Indigenous languages
Uncertain forms
“The name may derive from a language of peoples living near the range, but no single source has been conclusively established.”
Medieval period
Turkic languages
ural
“Often connected by scholars with a proposed Turkic word meaning “belt” or “girdle,” though this derivation is debated.”
16th–17th Century
Russian
Урал (Ural)
“The name enters Russian geographical usage for the mountain range.”
18th Century
English
Ural
“English adopts Ural as the name of the mountain system separating European and Asian Russia.”
Modern English
English
Urals
“The conventional plural name for the mountain range, especially in geographical and historical writing.”