قیر

Ottoman Turkish

قیر

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Turkic *kïr (“isolated mountain; steppe, wilderness”); cognate with Azerbaijani qır, Bashkir ҡыр (qır), Chuvash хир (hir), Kazakh қыр (qyr), Kyrgyz кыр (kır), Turkmen gyr, Uyghur قىر (qir) and Uzbek qir.

Noun

قیر • (kır) (definite accusative قیری (kırı), plural قیرلر (kırlar))

1. steppe, the grasslands typical of Eastern Europe and Asia, similar to prairies and savannas

   Synonym: سته‌پ (step)

2. wilderness, waste, uncultivated and unsettled land with wild animals and vegetation growing wild

   Synonym: یابان (yaban)

3. countryside, an area located outside of cities or towns, a rural area that is not urban or suburban

Adjective

قیر • (kır)

1. grey, of a grey hue, of an intermediate colour between black and white

   Synonym: بوز (boz)

2. uncultivated, not cultivated by agricultural methods, not prepared for cultivation

Derived terms

• آق قیر (ak kır, “greyish white (of a horse)”)
• آل قیر (al kır, “ruddy grey (of a horse)”)
• آلا قیر (ala kır, “dappled grey (of a horse)”)
• دمیر قیر (demir kır, “iron grey (of a horse)”)
• سوت قیر (süt kır, “milk grey (of a horse)”)
• قیر آت (kır at, “grey horse”)
• قیر سرداری (kır serdarı, “chief of rural police”)
• قیر شهری (kır şehri, “Kırşehir, a city and province in Turkey”)
• قیر صاچلو (kır saçlı, “grey-haired”)
• قیر یر (kır yer, “steppe, uncultivated place”)
• قیراچ (kıraç, “uncultivated, left in fallow”)
• قیرلرده كزمك (kırlarda gezmek, “to live a nomadic life”)
• قیرچیل (kırçıl, “somewhat mixed with grey”)

 

Descendants

• Turkish: kır
• → Armenian: խըռ (xəṙ), ղըռ (ġəṙ)
• → Serbo-Croatian: kŕdža, кр́џа

Further reading

• Barbier de Meynard, Charles (1886) “قیر”, in Dictionnaire turc-français, volume II, Paris: E. Leroux, page 590
• Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007) “kır2”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), volume 1, Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 2614
• Hindoglu, Artin (1838) “قیر”, in Hazine-i lûgat ou dictionnaire abrégé turc-français‎^[1], Vienna: F. Beck, page 380a
• Kélékian, Diran (1911) “قیر”, in Dictionnaire turc-français‎^[2], Constantinople: Mihran, page 997
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1687) “Planities”, in Complementum thesauri linguarum orientalium, seu onomasticum latino-turcico-arabico-persicum, simul idem index verborum lexici turcico-arabico-persici, quod latinâ, germanicâ, aliarumque linguarum adjectâ nomenclatione nuper in lucem editum‎^[3], Vienna, column 1305
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1680) “قیر”, in Thesaurus linguarum orientalium, Turcicae, Arabicae, Persicae, praecipuas earum opes à Turcis peculiariter usurpatas continens, nimirum Lexicon Turkico-Arabico-Persicum‎^[4], Vienna, column 3822
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “kır”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
• Redhouse, James W. (1890) “قیر”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎^[5], Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 1505