Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Cathay
Ca-thay′
,Noun.
China; – an old name for the Celestial Empire, said have been introduced by Marco Polo and to be a corruption of the Tartar name for North China (Khitai, the country of the Khitans.)
Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of
Cathay
. Tennyson.
Definition 2024
Cathay
Cathay
English
Proper noun
Cathay
- (archaic) China, specifically medieval northern China as reached by the overland Silk Road to Xi'an or Beijing, not known at the time to be related to the southern Chinese reached by the maritime routes to Guangzhou.
- A settlement in North Dakota.
Translations
Medieval northern China
References
- ↑ "Cathay, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Etymology
From Latin Cathaya, variant of Cataya, from Old Turkic 
(Khitāyn), the Khitan people who conquered northern China as the Liao dynasty in the 10th century and ruled the central Asian Qara Khitai Khanate in the 12th, just prior to the overland European missions to China occasioned by the Pax Mongolica. Cognate with Russian Кита́й (Kitáj, “China”).[1] See "Names of China" at Wikipedia.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kæˈθeɪ/
- Rhymes: -eɪ