Tuareg

noun

Tua·​reg ˈtwä-ˌreg How to pronounce Tuareg (audio)
variants or less commonly Touareg
plural Tuareg or Tuaregs also Touareg or Touaregs
: a member of a nomadic people of the central and western Sahara and along the middle Niger from Tombouctou to Nigeria

Examples of Tuareg in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
This includes Tuareg mats, woven from natural fibres by semi-nomadic people in northern Africa, which Zarib has a special interest in. Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 8 Dec. 2024 Moctar and his band gallop through a tightly edited collection informed by years of live performance, leveraging their international stature to call for Tuareg cultural pride and African self-determination on the world stage. Pitchfork, 3 Dec. 2024 The lounge-y living room features custom Pierre Frey Teddy Mohair drapes in Mousse, a custom sofa in black velvet, Audo’s Tired Man chair in chocolate sheepskin, a vintage Moroccan Tuareg rug, and Difane’s Estela lamp. Kathryn Romeyn, Architectural Digest, 30 Oct. 2024 Dilara Sage Green, also taking influence from Tuareg rugs, will make any room feel like a relaxing escape. Christianna Silva, Better Homes & Gardens, 10 July 2024 Five months ago, Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar released a new album called Funeral for Justice, a furious, frenetic fusion of psychedelia, hard rock, and West African desert blues that left critics across the globe stunned. Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 2 Oct. 2024 In their native city of Agadez, a trading hub of the nomadic Tuareg tribe in the high Sahara Desert, Etran de L’Aïr have been playing since the mid-1990s. Reed Jackson, SPIN, 19 Sep. 2024 Days after the incident, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence insinuated that Ukraine may have played a role in providing intelligence to Tuareg groups. Christopher Michael Faulkner, The Conversation, 9 Aug. 2024 The attack was claimed by a Tuareg rebels group along with the al Qaeda affiliate in the Sahel, JNIM (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin). Anneclaire Stapleton, CNN, 4 Aug. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from North African Bedouin Arabic ṭwārəg, plural of ṭārgi, perhaps an adjective derivative from "Targa," alleged to be a Berber name for Fezzan, region of southwest Libya

Note: This etymology is from the article Ṭawāiḳ by the Berber and Tuareg specialist Karl-Gustav Prasse in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition. A similar origin is suggested by Heinrich Barth in Reisen und Entdeckungen in Nord- und Central-Afrika in den Jahren 1849 bis 1855, Band 1 (Gotha, 1857), p. 246.

First Known Use

1821, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of Tuareg was in 1821

Dictionary Entries Near Tuareg

Cite this Entry

“Tuareg.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Tuareg. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

Tuareg

noun
Tua·​reg ˈtwä-ˌreg How to pronounce Tuareg (audio)
plural Tuareg or Tuaregs
: a member of a nomadic people of Africa

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