Dictionary

Silk Road en · PROPN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Calque of German Seidenstraße.

Meanings

1. (historical) An extensive interconnected network of trade routes across Asia, North and Northeast Africa, and Europe, historically used by silk traders.
   • The ancient "silk road" is now replaced by the newly-built Karakoram Highway linking China and Pakistan. [1978 June 19 [1978 June 18], Li Yun-fei, “'Silk Road' Replaced by New Highway”, in Daily Report: People's Republic of China, volume I, number 118, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, sourced from Peking NCNA, →ISSN, →OCLC, People's Republic of China:, page A 18:
   • But halfway back, he learned that there had been a change in dynasties and decided he would be better off staying where he was. And so Lu Kuang set up his own Silk Road kingdom at Wuwei in the middle of the Kansu Corridor. 2016, Bill Porter, The Silk Road: Taking the Bus to Pakistan, Counterpoint, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 172:
   • In this old Silk Road city in western China, a state security campaign involving the detention of vast numbers of people has moved to its next stage: demolishing their neighborhoods and purging their culture. 2019 March 21, “After mass detentions, China razes Muslim communities to build a loyal city”, in EFE, archived from the original on 21 Aug 2022:
   • China had received with more or less good grace the flood of Buddhist missionaries but had long since sent out her own missionaries— priests, not of a transcendental religion of salvation, but of a secular way of life, of a worldly and refined civilization. Expansion in Turkestan and Central Asia took place simultaneously with expansion in Southeast Asia. As fast as the famed Silk Road started winding itself through thousands of miles of Eurasian deserts, swamps, jungles and mountains toward Persia and the Mediterranean world, increasingly numerous fleets of junks began to ply the warm waters of the tropical south. 1958, Amaury de Riencourt, “The Moonlight Civilizations”, in The Soul of China, Revised edition, Harper & Row, published 1965, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 109-110:
   • Six hours are enough to devour the over 900 miles from Shanghai to Xi’an, the landlocked capital of Shaanxi Province in China’s central northwest, standing on the bones of the imperial city of Chang’an. In the seventh and eighth centuries A.D., this was the center of not only China but the globe — the eastern origin of the trade routes we call the Silk Road and the nexus of a cross-cultural traffic in ideas, technology, art and food that altered the course of history as decisively as the Columbian Exchange eight centuries later. A million people lived within Chang’an’s pounded-earth walls, including travelers and traders from Central, Southeast, South and Northeast Asia and followers of Buddhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, Nestorian Christianity and Manichaeism. 2020 May 11, Ligaya Mishan, “Eating in Xi’an, Where Wheat and Lamb Speak to China’s Varied Palette”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 May 2020:

Forms

Deriveds

Silk Road disease

Translations (46)

fa راه ابریشم (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ga Bóthar an tSíoda (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · pl Jedwabny Szlak (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · vi Con đường tơ lụa (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · es Ruta de la Seda (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ky жибек жолу (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · hu selyemút (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · cy Ffordd y Sidan (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · tr İpek Yolu (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ar طَرِيق اَلْحَرِير (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · fa جاده ابریشم (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · uk Вели́кий шовко́вий шлях (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · bg Път на копри́ната (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ur شاہراہ ریشم (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ka აბრეშუმის დიდი გზა (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ka აბრეშუმის გზა (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · eo Silka Vojo (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · hy Մետաքսի ճանապարհ (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · da silkevej (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · alt јибек јол (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · et Siiditee (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ja シルクロード (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · pt Rota da Seda (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · az İpək Yolu (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · it via della seta (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ko 비단길 (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ru шёлковый путь (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · nog йибек йолы (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · he דרך המשי (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · sv sidenvägen (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ja 絹の道 (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · nl zijderoute (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · bo དར་གོས་འགྲུལ་ལམ (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · kk Жібек жолы (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · cmn 絲綢之路 /丝绸之路 (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · fi silkkitie (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · pl jedwabny szlak (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · th เส้นทางสายไหม (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · hi रेशम मार्ग (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · de Seidenstraße (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ta பட்டுப் பாதை (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ru Вели́кий шёлковый путь (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · mn Торгоны зам (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ko 실크 로드 (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · ug يىپەك يولى (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa) · fr route de la soie (routes used by silk traders across Europe, Asia and northern Africa)