Peking

• Pachin, Paquin, Pekin, Pequin (obsolete)

c. 1655 romanization of the Nanking court dialect Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 北京 (Běijīng), reinforced by Postal Romanization from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ].^[1] The early Portuguese and Jesuits such as Francis Xavier used the spelling Paquim; Abraham Ortelius used C. Paquin for his 1572 Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas; Italian Jesuit Martino Martini used Peking in his 1654 Latin De Bello Tartarico Historia and 1655 Novus Atlas Sinensis, which were quickly translated into English and later used by Joan Blaeu for his 1665 Atlas Maior. Peter Heylyn's Cosmographie changed its spelling from Paquin in the 1652 edition to Peking in the 1658 edition, but both Pekin and Peking were used interchangeably in English until the Chinese Imperial Post adopted Peking as its official transcription in the 1890s.

• IPA^(key): /piːˈkɪŋ/,^[2][3][4] /peɪ.ˈkɪŋ/^[2][3]
• enPR: pēʹkǐngʹ, pāʹkǐngʹ

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋ
• Hyphenation: Pe‧king

Peking

1. Dated form of Beijing: a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China.
   • 1655, The History of That Great and Renowned Monarchy of China‎^[12], page 273:

     The Emperour hearing of the ill ſucceſſe of this Affairs, began to think of leaving the Northern parts, where his Royal City of Peking is ſituated, and to paſſe to Nankuing which is far more Southward; but he was diſſwaded from this intended courſe as well by his loyal, as diſloyal ſubjec͡ts : by theſe, that they might give him up more ſpeedily into the enemies hands, before their treachery was diſcovered; and by the others, leſt his flight might trouble the Kingdome more, and diſcourage all his Subjec͡ts from giving their beſt aſſiſtance; for they thought the City impregnable, being fortified with ſo ſtrong a Garriſon; nor did they doubt that the Kings preſence would draw the ſources of the whole Kingdom to him.

   • 1972 February 20, President Richard Nixon, 15:48 from the start, in Nixon in China (The Film)‎^[13], Agana, Guam: Richard Nixon Presidential Library:

     This is not a time for a long speech but, I would not want this opportunity to pass without saying just a word with regard to the significance of this moment. Some of you may recall that it was two and a half years ago that right here in Guam, I announced a new direction for American foreign policy based on the principles of self-reliance, self-respect- equal dignity for all nations, large and small throughout the world. And tomorrow, I will take off from Guam for Shanghai and Peking, the first President of the United States ever to visit China. Guam, I know it is said, is where the American day begins. And I would hope that all of you today would join me in this prayer, that with this trip to China, a new day may begin for the whole world. Thank you very much.

   • 1989 June 4, Kate Adie, 0:02 from the start, in Archive: Chinese troops fire on protesters in Tiananmen Square - BBC News‎^[14], Peking: BBC News, published 2014:

     The noise of gunfire rose from all over the center of Peking. It was unremitting.

   • 2023 April 12, John Bolton, “A New American Grand Strategy to Counter Russia and China”, in The Wall Street Journal‎^[15], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 April 2023, Opinion:

     Third, after Ukraine wins its war with Russia, we must aim to split the Russia-China axis. Moscow’s defeat could unseat Mr. Putin’s regime. What comes next is a government of unknowable composition. New Russian leaders may or may not look to the West rather than Beijing, and might be so weak that the Russian Federation’s fragmentation, especially east of the Urals, isn’t inconceivable. Beijing is undoubtedly eyeing this vast territory, which potentially contains incalculable mineral wealth. Significant portions of this region were under Chinese sovereignty until the 1860 Treaty of Peking transferred “outer Manchuria,” including extensive Pacific coast lands, to Moscow. Russia’s uncontrolled dissolution could provide China direct access to the Arctic, including even the Bering Strait, facing Alaska.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Peking.
2. (metonymic) Dated form of Beijing: the government of the People's Republic of China; the central leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Peking.

• Cultural terms using Peking such as Peking duck and Peking opera are the standard English language forms. However, as a reference to the city itself, Peking, though common in English into the 1980s,^[5] is less common than the pinyin-derived Beijing in standard English and is perceived to be dated or historical. The adjectival form Pekingese is more common than the more recently generated terms Beijingese and Beijinger.

• Nanking

• “Peking, pn.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “Peking”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “Peking” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2025.
• Medhurst, Walter Henry (1848) English and Chinese Dictionary‎^[16], volume 2, Shanghae (Shanghai): Mission Press, →OCLC, page 939
• Medhurst, Walter Henry (1842) Chinese and English Dictionary; Containing All the Words in the Chinese Imperial Dictionary, Arranged According to the Radicals‎^[17], volume 1, Parapattan, Batavia (Jakarta), page 6

• Keping, keping

Ultimately from the Nanking court dialect Mandarin 北京 (Běijīng) from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ].^[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈpɛkɪŋk]

Peking m inan (relational adjective pekingský, demonym Pekiňan)

1. Beijing, Peking (a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China)

• “Peking”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “Peking”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “Peking”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

Borrowed from Mandarin 北京 (Běijīng), specifically the Nanking court dialect from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ].^[2] Compare Portuguese Pequim, Spanish Pekín, English Peking, French Pékin.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpeːkɪŋ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Peking n

1. Beijing, Peking (a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China)

• Beijing (rare)

Ultimately from the Nanking court dialect Mandarin 北京 (Běijīng) from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ].^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈpekiŋ/, [ˈpe̞k̟iŋ]
• Rhymes: -ekiŋ
• Syllabification^(key): Pe‧king
• Hyphenation^(key): Pe‧king

Peking

1. Beijing, Peking (a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China)

Ultimately from the Nanking court dialect Mandarin 北京 (Běijīng) from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ].^[1] Compare Portuguese Pequim, Spanish Pekín, Dutch Peking, English Peking, French Pékin.

• IPA^(key): [ˈpeːkɪŋ]

• Audio:

  (file)

Peking n (proper noun, genitive Pekings or (optionally with an article) Peking)

1. Beijing, Peking (a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China)

   Synonym: (uncommon) Beijing

   • 2023 December 15, Fabian Kretschmer, “Zwangsarbeitsvorwürfe gegen Volkswagen: Zweifel an VW-Bericht zu Uiguren”, in Die Tageszeitung: taz‎^[18], →ISSN:

     Tatsächlich jedoch dürfte vor allem die Angst vor der chinesischen Regierung überwiegen: Ein Rückzug von VW aus Xinjiang würde für Peking schließlich einen tiefen Gesichtsverlust darstellen.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• In German, Peking remains the vastly predominant form of the name in all contexts (except perhaps sinologist literature and the like).^[2]

• Pekingente

• “Peking” in Duden online
• Peking on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de

Ultimately from the Nanking court dialect Mandarin 北京 (Běijīng) from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ].^[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈpɛkiŋɡ]
• Hyphenation: Pe‧king
• Rhymes: -iŋɡ

Peking

1. Beijing, Peking (a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China)

   Synonym: Beijing

• pekingi

Peking

1. Peking (the former name of Beijing, a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China)

Ultimately from the Nanking court dialect Mandarin 北京 (Běijīng) from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ].^[2]

• IPA^(key): /pěkinɡ/
• Hyphenation: Pe‧king

Pèking m animacy unspecified (Cyrillic spelling Пѐкинг)

1. Beijing, Peking (a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China)

Ultimately from the Nanking court dialect Mandarin 北京 (Běijīng) from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ].^[3]

• IPA^(key): [ˈpekink]

Peking m inan (genitive singular Pekingu)

1. Beijing, Peking (the capital of China)

• “Peking”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

Ultimately from the Nanking court dialect Mandarin 北京 (Běijīng) from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ].^[4]

• IPA^(key): /pèːkink/

Pêking m inan

1. Beijing, Peking (the capital of China)

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Masculine inan., hard o-stem
nominative	Péking
genitive	Pékinga
	singular
nominative (imenovȃlnik)	Péking
genitive (rodȋlnik)	Pékinga
dative (dajȃlnik)	Pékingu
accusative (tožȋlnik)	Péking
locative (mẹ̑stnik)	Pékingu
instrumental (orọ̑dnik)	Pékingom

• Pékinžan / Pékinžanka
• pékinški

• “Peking”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
• “Peking”, in Termania, Amebis
• See also the general references

• Beijing (Hanyu Pinyin)

Ultimately from the Nanking court dialect Mandarin 北京 (Běijīng) from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ].^[5]

Peking n (genitive Pekings)

1. Beijing, Peking (a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China)

• knepig

Borrowed from English Peking, from an old romanization of Nanking court dialect Mandarin 北京 (Běijīng), reinforced by Postal Romanization from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ].^[6] Compare Spanish Pekín, Portuguese Pequim.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈpekiŋ/ [ˈpɛː.xɪŋ]
• Rhymes: -ekiŋ
• Syllabification: Pe‧king

Peking (Baybayin spelling ᜉᜒᜃᜒᜅ᜔)

1. Beijing, Peking (a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China)

• “Peking”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018
• Medhurst, Walter Henry (1848) English and Chinese Dictionary‎^[19], volume 2, Shanghae (Shanghai): Mission Press, →OCLC, page 939
• Medhurst, Walter Henry (1842) Chinese and English Dictionary; Containing All the Words in the Chinese Imperial Dictionary, Arranged According to the Radicals‎^[20], volume 1, Parapattan, Batavia (Jakarta), page 6