Cathay

Meaning

Proper Noun

• 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 southern China as reached by the maritime routes to Guangzhou.
• settlement North Dakota (state).

Origin

• From Latin Cathaya, variant of Cataya, from Old Turkic 𐰶𐰃𐱃𐰪, 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 ("China"). See "Names of China" at Wikipedia.