Tonkin
English
Etymology 1
From a medieval diminutive form of the given name Thomas.
Proper noun
Tonkin (plural Tonkins)
- A surname transferred from the given name.
Statistics
- According to the 2010 United States Census, Tonkin is the 15418th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 1900 individuals. Tonkin is most common among White (94.68%) individuals.
Etymology 2
From French Tonkin, from Vietnamese Đông Kinh (“Hanoi; its former kingdom”), from đông (“east, eastern”) + kinh (“capital”), from Middle Chinese 東京 (tuwng kjaeng), q.v.
Proper noun
Tonkin
- (archaic) Synonym of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.
- (historical) A former kingdom in northern Vietnam.
- (historical) A former protectorate in northern Vietnam, a colony of France.
- Ellipsis of the Gulf of Tonkin: a gulf in northern Vietnam.
- Ellipsis of Gulf of Tonkin incident, a 1964 event used to increase US involvement in the Vietnamese Civil War.
Alternative forms
Derived terms
Further reading
- Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Tonkin”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 3, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.
Anagrams
French
Alternative forms
- Tonking (obsolete)
Etymology
From Vietnamese Đông Kinh, a former name for Hanoi. Also see Pékin (“Beijing”) and Nankin (“Nanjing”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tɔ̃.kɛ̃/
Audio: (file)
Proper noun
Tonkin m
- (history) the northern part of Vietnam, a former French colonial region
- a gulf in northern Vietnam: the Gulf of Tonkin
Derived terms
- golfe du Tonkin
- haricot du Tonkin
- Tonkinois
- tonkinois
Descendants
- English: Tonkin
See also
Japanese
Romanization
Tonkin