Nenets

[ nen-ets ]

noun

, plural Nen·tsi, Nen·tsy [nent, -see], (especially collectively) Nen·ets.

1. a member of a reindeer-herding Uralic people of far northern European Russia and adjacent areas of Siberia as far as the Yenisei River delta.
2. the Samoyedic language of the Nenets.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Nenets¹

< Russian nénets (with -ets falsely construed as the Russian suffix) < Nenets ńēnetś man, Nenets

Example Sentences

At that time, local people lived by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants—a lifestyle still partially practiced by Nenets and Khanty people in the area today.

From Science Magazine

These are strange times for the Indigenous Nenets reindeer herders of northern Siberia.

From Science Magazine

For some coastal communities it will be “an existential threat,” the report said, adding that traditional lifestyles of the Sami and the Nenets peoples are already under threat in the European Arctic.

From Seattle Times

In March, Zhdanov’s father, a former municipal official in Russia’s northern Nenets region, was arrested on abuse-of-office charges widely seen as politically motivated.

From Seattle Times

Gazprom’s website boasts that it intends to operate for more than 100 years in Yamal, which in the Indigenous Nenets’ language means “land’s end.”

From Washington Post