Tungus

[ toong-gooz ]

noun

, plural Tun·gus·es, (especially collectively) Tun·gus.

1. Evenki.
2. any member of a Tungusic-speaking people.

Tungus

/ ˈtʊŋɡʊs /

noun

1. -guses-gus a member of a formerly nomadic Mongoloid people of E Siberia
2. Also calledEvenki the language of this people, belonging to the Tungusic branch of the Altaic family

Word History and Origins

Origin of Tungus¹

1620–30; ≪ Russian tungús, probably < Tatar, a formation with the Turkic suffix *-guz, used in ethnic names; identity of 1st element obscure

Example Sentences

The government of Russia under the Czars could not be bothered to investigate so trivial an event, which, after all, had occurred far away, among the backward Tungus people of Siberia.

From Literature

The Tunguses consider the after-birth cooked or roasted as a great delicacy.

From Project Gutenberg

The farther we go to the East the more they resemble the Yellow race, and the Buriats and Tunguses of Trans-Baikalia are hardly to be distinguished from the Chinese.

From Project Gutenberg

But the great bulk of the Tungus nation are still Shamanists.

From Project Gutenberg

They talked without animation; jokes and laughter, so beloved by the Tungus, were checked by a general sense of depression, and only rarely indulged in.

From Project Gutenberg