Editing Göktürks (section)

==Etymology==
===Origin===
[[File:Turanid looking Western Gokturk–Ak-Hun Turkic men, Miho Museum.jpg|thumb|A funerary depiction of long haired Türks in the Kazakh steppe. [[Miho funerary couch]], circa 570.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mierse |first1=William E. |title=Artifacts from the Ancient Silk Road |date=1 December 2022 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-4408-5829-1 |page=126 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WQuXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA126 |language=en}} "In the upper scene, long-haired Turkic servants attend an individual seated inside the yurt proper, and in the lower scene, hunters are seen riding down game. The setting must be the Kazakh steppes over which the Turks had taken control from the Hepthalites."
</ref>]]
As an [[ethnonym]], the etymology of ''Turk'' is still unknown.<ref>{{harvnb|Tasar|Frank|Eden|2021|pp=6–7}}</ref> It is generally believed that the name ''Türk'' may have come from Old Turkic migration-term<ref>(Bŭlgarska akademii︠a︡ na naukite. Otdelenie za ezikoznanie/ izkustvoznanie/ literatura, Linguistique balkanique, Vol. 27–28, 1984, p. 17</ref>{{Clarification needed|reason=What is a "migration-term"? This is not a common English term and seems to be a technical term.|date=April 2025}} {{Langx|otk|𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜|Türük/Törük|label=none}}, which means 'created, born'.<ref>Faruk Sümer, Oghuzes (Turkmens): History, Tribal organization, Sagas, Turkish World Research Foundation, 1992, p. 16)</ref>

As a word in Turkic languages, ''Turk'' may mean "strong, strength, ripe" or "flourishing, in full strength".<ref>{{harvnb|Tasar|Frank|Eden|2021|p=30}}</ref> It may also mean ripe as for a fruit or "in the prime of life, young, and vigorous" for a person.<ref>{{harvnb|Clauson|1972|pp=542–543}}</ref>

The name ''Gök-türk'' emerged from the misreading of the word ''Kök'', meaning [[Ashina tribe|''Ashina'']], the endonym of the ruling clan of the historical ethnic group which was attested in [[Old Turkic]] as {{langx|otk|𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜|Türük|label=none}}<ref name="KulteginMC">[http://irq.kaznpu.kz/?lang=e&mod=1&tid=1&oid=15&m=1 Kultegin's Memorial Complex, Türik Bitig] [[Orkhon inscriptions]]</ref><ref name="BilgeKaganMC">{{Cite web|url=https://kaznpu.kz/kz/|title=Абай атындағы Қазақ ұлттық педагогикалық университеті|website=kaznpu.kz}}</ref> {{langx|otk|𐰚𐰇𐰜:𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜|Kök Türük|label=none}},<ref name="KulteginMC" /><ref name="BilgeKaganMC" /> or {{langx|otk|𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰚|Türk|label=none}}.<ref name="TonyukukMC">[http://irq.kaznpu.kz/?lang=e&mod=1&tid=1&oid=17&m=1 Tonyukuk's Memorial Complex, Türik Bitig] [[Bain Tsokto inscriptions]]</ref> 

They were known in [[Middle Chinese]] historical sources as the ''Tūjué'' ({{zh|t=[[wikt:突|突]] [[wikt:厥|厥]]}}; reconstructed in Middle Chinese as *''dwət-kuɑt'' > ''tɦut-kyat'').{{sfn|Golden|2011|p=20}}

The ethnonym was also recorded in various other Middle Asian languages, such as [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]] *''Türkit ~ Türküt'', ''tr'wkt'', ''trwkt'', ''turkt'' > ''trwkc'', ''trukč''; [[Saka language|Khotanese Saka]] ''Ttūrka''/''Ttrūka'', [[Rouran language|Rouran]] ''to̤ro̤x''/''türǖg'', [[Korean language|Korean]] ''[[:ko:%EB%8F%8C%EA%B6%90|돌궐]]''/''Dolgwol'', and [[Old Tibetan]] ''Drugu''.{{sfn|Golden|2011|p=20}}{{sfn|Golden|2018|p=292}}

===Definition===
According to Chinese sources, ''Tūjué'' meant "[[combat helmet]]" ({{zh|c=[[wikt:兜|兜]] [[wikt:鍪|鍪]]|p=Dōumóu|w=Tou<sup>1</sup>-mou<sup>2</sup>}}), reportedly because the shape of the [[Altai Mountains]], where they lived, was similar to a combat helmet.<ref name="Zhou50">[[Linghu Defen]] et al., ''[[Book of Zhou]]'', [[:zh:s:周書/卷50|Vol. 50.]] {{in lang|zh}}</ref><ref name="Sui84">[[Wei Zheng]] et al., ''[[Book of Sui]]'', [[:zh:t:隋書/卷84|Vol. 84.]] {{in lang|zh}}</ref><ref name="Northern99">[[Li Yanshou]] (李延寿), ''[[History of the Northern Dynasties]]'', [[:zh:t:北史/卷099|Vol. 99.]] {{in lang|zh}}</ref> [[András Róna-Tas|Róna-Tas]] (1991) pointed to a [[Saka language|Khotanese-Saka]] word, ''tturakä'' 'lid', semantically stretchable to 'helmet', as a possible source for this folk etymology, yet Golden thinks this connection requires more data.<ref name="Golden2006">{{cite journal|last = Golden|first= Peter B.|title= Türks and Iranians: Aspects of Türk and Khazaro-Iranian Interaction|journal= Turcologica|issue= 105|page= 25}}</ref>

Göktürk is sometimes interpreted as either "Celestial Turk" or "Blue Turk" (i.e., because [[sky blue]] is associated with [[Sky deity|celestial realms]]).{{sfn|West|2008|p=829}} This is consistent with "the cult of heavenly ordained rule" which was a recurrent element of Altaic political culture and as such may have been imbibed by the Göktürks from their predecessors in Mongolia.<ref>Wink 64.</ref> "Blue" is traditionally associated with the East as it used in the [[cardinal direction#Northern Eurasia|cardinal system]] of central Asia, thus meaning "Turks of the East".{{sfn|Golden|1992|pages=133-134,136}} The name of the ruling [[Ashina tribe|Ashina clan]] may derive from the [[Khotanese Saka]] term for "deep blue", ''āššɪna''.{{sfn|Findley|2004|p=39}}

According to the [[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language|American Heritage Dictionary]], the word Türk meant "strong" in Old Turkic;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/92/T0419200.html|title=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition – "Turk"|author=American Heritage Dictionary|author-link=American Heritage Dictionary|publisher=bartleby.com|access-date=7 December 2006|year=2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070116043608/http://www.bartleby.com/61/92/T0419200.html|archive-date=16 January 2007}}</ref> though [[Gerhard Doerfer]] supports this theory, [[Gerard Clauson]] points out that "the word Türk is never used in the generalized sense of 'strong'" and that the noun Türk originally meant "'the culminating point of maturity' (of a fruit, human being, etc.), but more often used as an [adjective] meaning (of a fruit) 'just fully ripe'; (of a human being) 'in the prime of life, young, and vigorous'".<ref>{{cite book |last=Clauson |first=G. |title=An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-13th Century Turkish |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1972 |pages=542–543 |isbn=0-19-864112-5 }}</ref> Hakan Aydemir (2022) also contends that Türk originally did not mean "strong, powerful" but "gathered; united, allied, confederated" and was derived from Pre-[[Proto-Turkic]] verb *''türü'' 'heap up, collect, gather, assemble'.<ref>{{cite book|first= Hakan|last= Aydemir|date= 2–3 December 2022|chapter= TÜRK Adının Kökeni Üzerine (On the origin of the ethnonym TÜRK 'Turkic, Turkish') + an English abstract|title= Türk Dunyası Sosyal Bilimler - Sempozyumu|publisher= Ege University|location= İzmir|editor-last1= Şahin|editor-first1= İbrahim|editor-last2= Akgün|editor-first2= Atıf|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/100924309|language= tr}}</ref>

The name as used by the Göktürks only applied to themselves, the Göktürk khanates, and their subjects. The Göktürks did not consider other Turkic speaking groups such as the [[Uyghurs]], [[Tiele people|Tiele]], and [[Kyrgyz people|Kyrgyz]] to be Türks. In the [[Orkhon inscriptions]], the [[Toquz Oghuz]] and the [[Yenisei Kyrgyz]] are not referred to as Türks. Similarly, the Uyghurs called themselves Uyghurs and used ''Türk'' exclusively for the Göktürks, whom they portrayed as enemy aliens in their royal inscriptions. The [[Khazars]] may have kept the Göktürk tradition alive by claiming descent from the Ashina. When tribal leaders built their khanates, ruling over assorted tribes and tribal unions, the collected people identified themselves politically with the leadership. Turk became the designation for all subjects of the Turk empires. Nonetheless, subordinate tribes and tribal unions retained their original names, identities, and social structures. Memory of the Göktürks and the Ashina had faded by the turn of the millennium. The [[Karakhanids]], [[Qocho]] Uyghurs, and [[Seljuks]] did not claim descent from the Göktürks.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=Joo-Yup |title=Some remarks on the Turkicisation of the Mongols in post-Mongol Central Asia and the Qipchaq Steppe |journal=Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae |date=2018 |volume=71 |issue=2 |pages=128–129 |doi=10.1556/062.2018.71.2.1 |s2cid=133847698 |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=666361 |language=English |issn=0001-6446}}</ref><ref>Lee, Joo-Yup; Kuang, Shuntu (18 October 2017). "A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and Y-DNA Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples". Inner Asia. Brill. 19 (2): p. 203 of 197–239.</ref><ref>Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors, Page 34</ref>