Ancient Greek

The land of the Sinae ("CῗΝΑΙ") at the eastern end of the landlocked Indian Ocean in a c. 1420 edition of Ptolemy's Geography.

Alternative forms

• Θῖναι ‎(Thînai), Θιν ‎(Thin)

Proper noun

Σῖναι • ‎(Sînai)

1. (culture) A people of East Asia usually identified as the southern Chinese: the Cantonese, Vietnamese, and other Yue peoples reached via the maritime Silk Road to Panyu (Guangzhou), not known at the time to be related to the Seres reached by the overland route to Chang'an (Xi'an).
   • 1878, Thomas Rawson Birks translating Franz Delitzsch's citation of Neumann in his Commentary on the Book of Isaiah, p. 247:

     The name Θῖναι, Strabo, Σῖναι, Ptol., Τζίνιτζα, Kosmas, did not obtain currency first from the founder of the dynasty Tsin; but, long before this, Tsin was the name of a feudal kingdom in Shensi, one of the western provinces of the Sinese land, and Feitsa, the first feudal King of Tsin, began to reign as early as b.c. 897.

2. (geography) Their homeland in southern China: Guangdong and northern Vietnam.
3. (geography) Their chief city.

Inflection

Synonyms

• (early medieval): Τζίνιστα ‎(Tzínista); Τζίνιτζα ‎(Tzínitza) (rare)

Derived terms

• English: Sino-, Sinese
• Latin: Sinae, Sina, Sino-

See also

• (modern China): Κίνα ‎(Kína)