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
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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 There are constantly shifting alliances among rebel groups in the Sahel, but Tuareg groups have sometimes made common cause with al Qaeda’s affiliate in the region, JNIM. Tim Lister, CNN, 29 July 2024 The Tuareg people, a Berber ethnic group, are marginalized within Niger, and the band’s songs reflect not only the broader political frustrations of colonialism but also the internal frustrations of being a people at the margins of the margins. Hanif Abdurraqib, The New Yorker, 21 July 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 8 Nov. 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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