Catai

See also: catai and catái

Italian
Antica mappa del Catai. — Ancient map of Cathay.

Etymology

From Latin Kitai etc., from its Khitan original Khita(n), probably via Uyghur.[1]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /kaˈtaj/
  • Rhymes: -aj
  • Hyphenation: Ca‧tài

Proper noun

Catai m

  1. (historical) Cathay (the historical name of northern China)
    • c. 1300 [c. 1298], Marco Polo et al., Milione [Million]‎, translation of Le divisement dou monde by Marco Polo and Rustichello da Pisa (in Old French); republished as “Della città di Ciaglu [On the city of Chaglu]” (chapter 128), in Antonio Lanza, editor, Il Milione di Marco Polo, L'Unità - Editori Riuniti, 1982:
      Ciaglu è una molto grande città de la provincia del Catai, ed è al Grande Kane; e’ sono idoli. La moneta ànno di carte, e fan ardere lor corpi morti.
      [Ciaglu è una molto grande città de la provincia del Catai, ed è al Grande Kane; e' sono idoli. La moneta hanno di carte, e fan ardere lor corpi morti.]
      [original: Cianglu est encore une mout grant cité ver midi; est au Grant Kan et de la provence dou Catai. Lor monoie est de carte. Il sunt ydres et font ardoir les cors mors. (Franco-Venetian)]
      Changlu is a very large city in the province of Cathay: under the Great Khan: they [the people] are idolaters; they use paper money, and burn their dead.
    • 1516–1532, Ludovico Ariosto, “Canto 19”, in Orlando furioso, stanza 1; republished as Santorre Debenedetti, editor, Bari: Laterza, 1928:
      questa, se non sapete, Angelica era,
      del gran Can del Catai la figlia altiera
      This, if you don't know, was Angelica, the haughty daughter of the Great Khan of Cathay.
    • 1872–1880, Giovanni Pascoli, Astolfo‎, lines 29–32; republished in Maria Pascoli, compiler, Poesie varie di Giovanni Pascoli‎, Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, 1913, page 62:
      Pispigliavan le rose: Oh! la regina
      del Catai si fa sposa.
      Angelica, gemeano i fiordispina,
      là, nel Catai, riposa
      The roses whispered: "Oh, the queen of Cathay becomes a bride." "Angelica", moaned the hawthorne, "rests there, in Cathay."

See also

References
  1. Sinor, D. (1998) "The Kitan and the Kara Kitay" in History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol. IV, Pt. I, UNESCO, p. 241.

Anagrams

Portuguese

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin Cathaya. See English Cathay for more.

Pronunciation
  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /kaˈtaj/ [kaˈtaɪ̯]

Proper noun

Catai m

  1. (historical) Cathay (historical name of northern China)
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