Tatars

umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups in Asia and Europe

The Tatars, formerly also spelt Tartars, is an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name across Eastern Europe and Asia.

Quotes

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  • The Tartars of the Oxus, the King's guard,
    First, with black sheep-skin caps and with long spears;
    Large men, large steeds; who from Bokhara come
    And Khiva, and ferment the milk of mares.
    Next the more temperate Toorkmuns of the south,
    The Tukas, and the lances of Salore,
    And those from Attruck and the Caspian sands;
    Light men, and on light steeds, who only drink
    The acrid milk of camels, and their wells.
    And then a swarm of wandering horse, who came
    From far, and more doubtful service owned;
    The Tartars of Ferghana, from the banks
    Of the Jaxartes, men with scanty beards
    And close-set skull-caps; and those wilder hordes
    Who roam o’er Kipchak and the northern waste,
    Kalmuks and unkemped Kuzzaks, tribes who stray
    Nearest the Pole, and wandering Kirghizzes,
    Who come on shaggy ponies from Pamere.

Figurative usage

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Tartar (dated) A fearsome or angrily violent person.
  • Now listen here you buggers, we’ve caught a fuking tartar;
    At every kind of bludgin’ that bastard’s got the starter,
    At poker and at two-up he shook our fucking rules,
    He swipes our fucking liquor and he robs our fucking girls.
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