Ethnonyms becoming professionyms

sotos

Senior Member
Greek
Hello to all. I know a couple of ethnonyms which have (or used to have) a secondary meaning of a profession. "Tatar" is one of them, meaning "postman, courier" (now obsolete) in some East European languages. Do you know other examples of ethnonyms meaning a profession or the opposite, preferably in european languages and turkish?
Thank you.
 
  • Cossack (some kind of soldier) and gypsy (fortune teller), both outdated. Mage (there is a chance that Magi have some ethnic element other than just a class).

    Do mythical ethnonyms count? Like a paid troll 😁?
     
    Cossack (some kind of soldier) and gypsy (fortune teller), both outdated. Mage (there is a chance that Magi have some ethnic element other than just a class).

    Do mythical ethnonyms count? Like a paid troll 😁?
    In Poland the word"szwajcar" (Swiss man) was used until 100 years ago about a uniformed employee serving as a door guard or receptionist.
    In the 21st century "polakk" (Pole) acquired in Norway the meaning of an "unskilled worker taking casual jobs".
     
    Cossack (some kind of soldier) and gypsy (fortune teller), both outdated. Mage (there is a chance that Magi have some ethnic element other than just a class).

    Do mythical ethnonyms count? Like a paid troll 😁?
    Cossack was originally a name of social status and occupation. Cossacks lived in territories that are now South Ukraine, but in XVI to XVII century were beyond any state jurisdiction. They were recruited from neighbouring states and were mostly escapees from serfdom. They lived of fishing, farming and robbery of surrounding territory. On some point of history they began to enlist as professional mercenary soldiers.
    A Cossack was not "some kind of soldier". It was a professional light cavalry man in Russia and Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, renown for the bravery, lack of discipline and ruthlessness. Cossacks were used to harass the French army in 1812 in Russia, and they were very feared for their cruelty.
     
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    Similar to "Cossack" is the "Albanian" of old sources before mid-19th century, and the less used "Cravates" (Croates).
     
    Indeed, Romanian term "arnăut" (dexonline) designated mercenary soldiers used as palace guard in XVIII century. In the beginning these mercenaries were of Albanian ethnicity, but during times the ethnic composition changed.
     
    The Romanian ethnonim "rumân" (not "român") was used in Middle Ages to describe the social status of the peasants dependents on a boyar (nobleman) and living on the estate of their lord.
    There are many written attestations of this word in documents related to sales of estates together with the peasents ("rumâni") living on them.
     
    In French, the words maroquinerie (leatherworking) and maroquinier (leather craftsman) are derived from Maroc (Morocco). Well, it' a toponym, not an ethnonym, but I thought it might interrest you.
     
    "Tatar" is one of them, meaning "postman, courier" (now obsolete) in some East European languages.
    "Tatar" apparently meant "a mounted messenger" in Persian, but it's certainly *not* the origin of the ethnonym (which was definitely already attested in both Chinese chronicles and Old Turkic runic inscriptions in the 1st millenium a.d.).
    In German, "Schweizer" (Swiss) has been used for uniformed attendants in church (=> Kirchenschweizer). The term is derived from the Swiss Guard of the pope.
    In Russian only the meaning "doorman" of the German word has survived. Unlike German, Russian also contrasts "a doorman" (Shveytsár) and "a Swiss male" (Shveytsárets, from Shveytsáriya "Switzerland").
     
    "Tatar" apparently meant "a mounted messenger" in Persian, but it's certainly *not* the origin of the ethnonym (which was definitely already attested in both Chinese chronicles and Old Turkic runic inscriptions in the 1st millenium a.d.).
    The name "Tatar" has been used by different peoples about different peoples throughout of history. The oldest usage (before Genghis Khan era) was about a nomadic people living close to Mongols, but of uncertain origin (or mixed). Under the Mongol invasions against Europe "Mongol" and "Tatar" were used about the invaders by the Europeans. In England they were called "Tartars". Today "Tatar" is used about a Turkic people living for a long time in the Crimea and surrounding territories, deported to Siberia by Stalin, partially allowed to return by Khrushchov, and chased out again after the Russian annexion of Crimea.
     
    Today "Tatar" is used about a Turkic people living for a long time in the Crimea and surrounding territories, deported to Siberia by Stalin, partially allowed to return by Khrushchov, and chased out again after the Russian annexion of Crimea.
    Today 'Tatar' is an endonym for several ethnic groups, most notably Crimean Tatars and Kazan Tatars (with closely affiliated with the latter but still distinct Siberian Tatars and a loose conglomerate of Astrakhan Tatars). The endonym of the Khakas people, Tadar, must be also connected etymologically (the intervocal voicing is regular in Khakas). There is also the 'Tatar' tribe among the tribal part of Uzbeks, as well as the Tatar clan in the Awat tribe of the Kyrghyz people. All those, obviously, come from the Mongol era, sometimes by an exonym becoming an endonym (which is well attested for Kazan Tatars, at least for the core part; Mishars might have started to use it as an endonym earlier).
     
    Not really 'a profession', but a Tyrcan (a fairly derogatory term for a Turkish woman) is a word used to describe someone who is a bit of a battle-axe in Welsh, especially in the expression, Mae hi'n dipyn o Dyrcan. 'She's quite a Turk(ess)'.
     
    In the same vein in French, we have the idiomatic expression "fort comme un Turc" (lit.: strong as a Turk).
     
    Yes indeed:
    Grec — Wiktionnaire
    (2nd paragraph)

    I didn't know that!
    Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, the famous 19th century French magician, wrote a book called "L’art de gagner à tous les jeux : tricheries des Grecs dévoilées" (The art of winning at all games: cheatings of the Greeks unveiled).

    We also had the noun grecquerie = cheating.

    These words are obsolete today ;)
     
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    In Greek we have the ethnonym «Βλάχος» [ˈvlaxo̞s̠] --> Vlach, Wallachian, Aromanian speaker in Greece to be synonymous with the shepherd, or the stockbreeder (and the yokel, but that's considered a slur nowadays). The surname «Βλάχος» is a common one here but it's a professionym (metonym) identified with the shepherd
     
    In Greek we have the ethnonym «Βλάχος» [ˈvlaxo̞s̠] --> Vlach, Wallachian, Aromanian speaker in Greece to be synonymous with the shepherd, or the stockbreeder (and the yokel, but that's considered a slur nowadays). The surname «Βλάχος» is a common one here but it's a professionym (metonym) identified with the shepherd

    Hence, 'Welsh', according to some sources. (Others consider it to be 'slave'; 'foreigner; 'Romanised one' and related to 'Walloon' (and also 'walnut' = 'the foreign nut').

    The expression 'to welsh' (= to renege on one's promises/debts) and 'a welsher' (for someone who does so), has not been proven to be associated with my countrymen etymologically, but many of them consider this to be a racial slur against us.
     
    Not really 'a profession', but a Tyrcan (a fairly derogatory term for a Turkish woman) is a word used to describe someone who is a bit of a battle-axe in Welsh, especially in the expression, Mae hi'n dipyn o Dyrcan. 'She's quite a Turk(ess)'.

    In German, "Türke" (turk) is used for a fake; there's also the verb "türken" (to fake). It's derived from the "Mechanical Turk", a fake chess-playing machine.
     
    In English, 'bohemian' (with a small 'b') describes a way of living, and that's obviously not quite the same as a profession. I don't know what the connection with Bohemia is.
    Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people and with few permanent ties.

    The term bohemianism emerged in France in the early 19th century out of perceived similarities between the urban Bohemians and the Gypsy people

    The Gypsies wer ecalled "bohémiens" in French because they were believed to have come to France from Bohemia.
     
    In German, we have the French loanwords "Bohème" and "Bohémien" but the region and its inhabitants are called "Böhmen".
     
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    ^^I found out that in English the ethnonym Greek was identified with hustler/card shark by Edward Goulburn in his book "The pursuits of fashion" (1810)
    In the Middle Ages even the contemporary ethnonym of Greeks (Hellenes/Έλληνες) had a religious meaning, i.e. it used to mean followers of the ancient Greek religion.
     
    In German, we have the French loanwords "Bohème" and "Bohémien" but the region and its inhabitants are called "Böhmen".
    In Greek, we have "μποέμ" (masc.) [bo'em] and "μποέμισσα" (fem.) [bo'emisa], a French loanword, to describe a person who lives a cheerful and carefree life, indifferent to social conventions.

    But the region is called "Βοημία" [vo.i'mi.a] and its inhabitants "Βοημοί" [vo.i'mi].
     
    In Greek, we have "μποέμ" (masc.) [bo'em] and "μποέμισσα" (fem.) [bo'emisa], a French loanword, to describe a person who lives a cheerful and carefree life, indifferent to social conventions.
    Cf. Russian богема (bogéma) "Bohemianist circles" (from French "boheme"), the meaning of which during the 20th century gradually evolved from ~"indigent people of art living an unorganized, careless life" to ~"eccentric and spoiled people of art".
    The region may be historically referred to as Богемия (Bogémiya), though its most standard name is Чехия (Chékhiya).
     
    In the Middle Ages even the contemporary ethnonym of Greeks (Hellenes/Έλληνες) had a religious meaning, i.e. it used to mean followers of the ancient Greek religion.
    True, until reality hit hard after the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders of the 4th Crusade, the dissolution of the empire and the creation of the successor states of Nicaea, Trabzon (Trapezous) & Epirus.
    Then, slowly, an early Greek nationalism emerges from the imperial ruins, and Nicaea is called Ἑλληνίς ἐπικράτεια-Hellenic territory, and Ἑλληνικόν-Hellenikon by its contemporaries. Georgios Akropolites calls it ἑλληνίς γῆ-hellenic land.
    The second Nicaean emperor Ioannis III Doukas Vatadzes calls the Eastern Romans, "Hellenes" : τῷ γένει τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἡμῶν-to the Hellenic nation of ours.
    His son, emperor Theodore II Laskaris has a constant back-and-forth epistle exchange with Nikephoros Vlemmydes, where he writes, concerning the help the Eastern Romans are waiting by the west (against the emerging Ottomans): Τίς ὁ βοηθήσων ἡμῖν; Πῶς βοηθήσει τῷ Ἕλληνι;-Who's going to help us? How the Hellene is going to find help? He even calls his army Ἑλληνικόν στράτευμα-Hellenic army.
     
    Thank you for taking that in good part, @apmoy70 - probably a weak joke, but couldn't resist sharing. (Otherwise, as you know, much of the language of Ellas is Greek to me ...)
     
    "Gagne, Ménélas, le pays lointain,
    Où te mène, hélas ! La voix du destin !"
    (La belle Hélène, Offenbach)
     
    By randomly clicking through Wiktionary I just noticed that Polish Węgier and archaic Węgrzyn "Hungarian" were both used (also obsolete/archaic) to mean a pedlar.
     
    These are not precisely ethnonyms, but
    - the cordwainers (manufacturers of leather goods) Cordwainer - Wikipedia are named after the Spanish city of Cordoba
    - the milliners are named after the Italian city of Milan
    - a type of banking was named after Lombardy in Italy Lombard banking - Wikipedia
    No doubt there are lots more.
    In French too : cordonnier (shoemaker) comes from Cordoue (Córdoba, Spain).
     
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