mankurt

From Russian манкурт (mankurt). Coined by the Kyrgyz author Chinghiz Aitmatov in his 1980 novel The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years, in which people are turned into docile servants (mankurts) by exposing camel skin wrapped around their heads to the heat of the sun; the skins tighten as they dry, causing brain damage, such that the mankurts no longer recognize their name, family, or tribe—"a mankurt did not recognise himself as a human being".

mankurt (plural mankurts)

1. (derogatory, uncommon) A person with a lost or degraded cultural and ethnic identity or awareness about his ancestry, especially due to being affected by a dominant culture.

• trankum, Türkman, Turkmán, Turkman, unmarkt

Borrowed from Russian манку́рт (mankúrt).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaŋ.kurt/
• Rhymes: -aŋkurt
• Syllabification: man‧kurt

mankurt m pers

1. mankurt (individual with a lost or degraded cultural and ethnic identity or awareness about his or her ancestry)