sb. and a. Also 8 Uigure, 9 Uighur, Ouigour. [ad. East Turkish uighur, f. ui to follow, fit, agree + -gur adj. suffix.]
A. sb. 1. A member of the eastern branch of the Turkish race, which was prominent in Central Asia from the 8th to the 12th century.
1785. Archaeol., VII. 227. Perhaps it was the Uigures or Igureans, from whom the great founder of the Mongol monarchy first received letters and the art of writing.
1844. Prichard, Phys. Hist. Mankind, IV. 311. The celebrated Turkish race of the Ouigours.
1874. F. E. Burnett, trans. Vambéry’s Cent. Asia, 132. The Uigurs have played a very remarkable part in the history of the civilisation of Central Asia.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 658/2. When we speak of Uigurs and Tatars, we mean tribes who style themselves Turks and really are such.
2. The language spoken by the Uigurs.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 406/1. The Uighur was originally written with fourteen, and alterwards with sixteen letters, which … there is reason to believe … have been invented by the Uighurs themselves.
1862. Latham, Compar. Philol., 102. Theoretically, the main differences between the Tshagatai and Uighur are considerable.
B. adj. Of or pertaining to, used by, the Uigurs.
1844. Prichard, Phys. Hist. Mankind, IV. 312. The Ouigour dialect … preserves the true characteristics and analogies of an oriental Tartarian idiom. Ibid., 313. He was the founder of the Ouigour empire.
1862. Latham, Compar. Philol., 100. The Uighur Turks were the first of their stock to use an alphabet. Ibid., 102. A Uighur alphabet makes a Uighur work.
1870. Howorth, in Jrnl. Ethnol. Soc. (N.S.), II. 87. The remains of the Ouigour literature.
Hence Uigurean, Uigurian, Uiguric adjs.
1773. Archaeol., II. 228. The Oigurian or Uigurean alphabet of 14 characters.
1844. Prichard, Phys. Hist. Mankind, IV. 316. As the Ouigourian and Mongolian alphabets have the same origin and form.
1874. F. E. Burnett, trans. Vambéry’s Cent. Asia, 131. The Uigurian race of the Turks.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 662/1. But the oldest Turkish alphabet, the Uigurian, is a direct transformation of the Syriac. Ibid., XXIV. 2. The unassimilated Uiguric kilur-im answers to the Osmanli kilur-um.
