Manchuria

Meaning

Proper Noun

• The three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang (and sometimes eastern Inner Mongolia) in northeastern China
• The area traditionally inhabited by the Manchu people and their Jurchen predecessors, now divided between China ("Inner Manchuria") and Russia ("Outer Manchuria").
• Synonym of Manchukuo: a former puppet state of Imperial Japan.

Related

Similar words

• Northeast, Inner Manchuria

Origin

• Probably originally a backformation from Manchurian, from Dutch Mansiourische, from Mansiouwer + -isch, possibly as a calque of Japanese 満州 ("Manchuria; Manchurian"). Equivalent to New Latin and English Manchu + -ia, with the r added for ease of pronunciation under the influence of names like Etruria, Liguria, &c. Cf. French Mandchourie, German Mandschurei, &c. Further popularized by Philipp von Siebold's early-19th-century Dutch translations of Japanese maps employing the term, replacing the earlier and vaguer Tartary, eastern Tartary, Chinese Tartary, &c.