Etymology

From Mongolian ᠬᠦᠷᠢᠶ᠎ᠡ ‎(küriy᠎e, “enclosure; area”), whence Khalkha Mongolian хүрээ ‎(hüree). Hence a variant of 庫倫／库伦 (“used in placenames”).

Alternatively, as a disyllabic Jin derivative of 圈 (OC *kʰron, *ɡronʔ, *kʰon, *ɡlonʔ, *ɡlons, “circle”) which has preserved the -l- infix in Old Chinese (Qiao, 2008).

Pronunciation