mankurt en · NOUN
Etymology
Borrowed from Russian манкурт (mankurt). Coined by the Kyrgyz author Chinghiz Aitmatov in his novel The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years (1980), 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". However, this term quickly became popular in the sense of "rootless person who forgot their cultural and ethnic identity," in the languages of Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
Meanings
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(derogatory, uncommon) A person with a lost or degraded cultural and ethnic identity or awareness about his or her ancestry, especially due to being affected by a dominant culture.
A mankurt differs from a renegade in that a renegade primarily betrays their community, while a mankurt primarily betrays themself. The mankurt's lost identity is a de-centering problem, […]
2023, Stephen W. Hiemstra, Image and Illumination: A Study of Christian Anthropology:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| mankurts | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Coordinates
Macaulay's children (a person who forgot their original culture) · West Briton (a person who forgot their original culture) · banana (a person who forgot their original culture)
Translations (10)
ba маңҡорт (An individual with a lost or degraded cultural and ethnic identity or awareness about his ancestry) · ru манкурт (An individual with a lost or degraded cultural and ethnic identity or awareness about his ancestry) · kk мәңгүрт (An individual with a lost or degraded cultural and ethnic identity or awareness about his ancestry) · ro mancurt (An individual with a lost or degraded cultural and ethnic identity or awareness about his ancestry) · lv mankurts (An individual with a lost or degraded cultural and ethnic identity or awareness about his ancestry) · lt mankurtas (An individual with a lost or degraded cultural and ethnic identity or awareness about his ancestry) · uk манку́рт (An individual with a lost or degraded cultural and ethnic identity or awareness about his ancestry) · pl mankurt (An individual with a lost or degraded cultural and ethnic identity or awareness about his ancestry) · ka მანქურთი (An individual with a lost or degraded cultural and ethnic identity or awareness about his ancestry) · hy մանկուրտ (An individual with a lost or degraded cultural and ethnic identity or awareness about his ancestry)
wikipedia: The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years · wikipedia: Chinghiz Aitmatov