The term "Turk" acquired a meaning similar to "barbarian" or "heathen" in various European languages, as evident from the following dictionary entries:
- Websters New Collegiate Dictionary: "One who is cruel or tyrannical." (noted as archaic)[14][38]
- Concise Oxford Dictionary: "Ferocious, wild or unmanageable person."[14][39]
- Random House Dictionary: "A cruel, brutal and domineering man."[14]
Many vices in the world came to be associated with the Turks as they moved westward towards Europe. The following is an incomplete list of sayings about Turks in various countries of Europe and the Middle East.
- "թուրք" ("Turk") is commonly used to question someone's loyalty or criticize one's moral qualities: "հո թուրք չե՞ս" ("Are you a Turk?")[102]
- "թուրքի տուն" ("Turk's house") is a phrase to describe disordered and a very dirty house[103]
- ако ще турско да стане (ako šte túrsko da stáne). Literally: Even if the Turkish [yoke] would be reimposed. The Turkish yoke (1396–1878) is an epitome of odious time, tribulations and atrocious oppression in the Bulgarian-speaking countries.
Idiom:(after negation) indicates extreme obstinacy, reluctance: by no manner of means. Synonym: by no means
- турчин ( Turk). Idiom: someone who doesn't let his wife to go out of the house and is oppressive to women.
- Turc was once used in proverbial expressions such as C'est un vrai Turc ("He's a real Turk"), used to indicate that a person was harsh and pitiless.[104]
- getürkt ("turked") describes a fake or counterfeit document. "Dieser Führerschein ist getürkt." ("This driving license is a fake.").
- Έγινε Τούρκος ("He became a Turk") denotes extreme anger towards someone or because of something ("He was so angry that he resembled a Turk").[105]
- Tork-e khar ("Turkish donkey") is a derogatory insult usually directed against Turks.[106][107] It usually means a stubborn person who does not accept any reasons and want to achieve everything with force.
- bestemmia come un Turco ("he swears like a Turk")[108]
- Mamma li Turchi! ("Oh mother, the Turks are coming!") is one of the most used Italian phrase to suggest an imminent danger, as when the Ottoman Turks threatened Europe[109][110]
- Fumare come un Turco ("To smoke like a Turk") is a phrase that describes a person who smokes a lot.
- Quando puzza d'un Turco, anche la colera si sfugge ("When there is the stench of a Turk, even the cholera hides") Implies that even the cholera, one of the deadliest of epidemics in Europe is afraid of Turks.
- Il Turco ed il cane rabbioso sono ugualmente crudeli; ma con il cane forse si potrebbe ragionare ("A Turk and a rabid dog are equally cruel, but you just might reason with the dog") Implies Turks are cruel for the sake of cruelty.
- Freddo, come il cuor d'un turco ("Cold, like a Turk's heart") Another allusion to cruelty.
- Iswed tork ("As black as a Turk"), referring to someone of dark skin colour
- Ipejjep daqs tork ("He smokes as much as a Turk"), referring to a chainsmoker
- Sar tork ("He became a Turk"), referring to someone who lost his faith
- Twieled tork ("A turk was born)", referring to when it rains and there is the sun still shining
- Għadu Tork! ("He is still a Turk"), referring to a non-baptised person
- Ara ġej it-Tork għalik ("Look the Turk is coming for you"), mothers used to scare children about the Turk coming for them when they misbehaved.
- It-Torok ("By the Turks") when something strange happens this phrase is idomatically used as an exclamation.
- Ħaqq it-Torok ("Curse for the turks"), literally swearing when something goes wrong
- Qattus it-Torok ("To hell with the turks"), as above. Very common idiomatic usage.
- Xit-Torok trid? (literally "What the turkish do you want"), signifying what on earth do you want
- La Torka (the Turkish way), to stay in a squatting position.
- It-torok imorru fej seħet Alla (the Turks go where God cursed), rarely used, an expression showing intolerance against non-believers.
- "eruit zien als een Turk" ("to look like a Turk") means to be dirty, disgusting
- "rijden als een Turk" ("driving like a Turk") means someone is a bad driver
- For decades after the Turkish immigrants came to the Netherlands most encyclopedias and dictionaires, including the Van Dale, still referred to a Turk as someone who isdirty, barbaric and bloodthirsty, instead of[citation needed] someone who lives in Turkey[111]
- "Măi, turcule" (You, Turk) or "a fi turc" (to be a Turk) is an expression used to address or to refer to a person who fails to comprehend, is ignorant, stubborn or narrow-minded[42][114]
- "a fuma ca un turc" ("to smoke like a Turk") is an expression used to denote a person who smokes a lot[114][115]
- "doar nu dau/vin turcii" (roughly "Hold your horses!", literally "the Turks aren't coming[, are they?]") is an expression used to ironically calm someone's impulsiveness down[114]
- "Незваный гость хуже Татарина" ("An unwanted guest is worse than a Tatar", with Tatars being a Turkic people living in Russia).[116]
- "puši ko Turčin / пуши ко Турчин" is a phrase that means "he smokes like a Turk" describing a person who smokes a lot[117]
- "Tarrakni" ("He turkified me") in reference to the corruption of the Ottoman rule of Tunisia. It means "he ruined me".
Quotes[edit]
“ They [the Turks] were, upon the whole, from the black day when they first entered Europe, the one great anti-human specimen of humanity. Wherever they went, a broad line of blood marked the track behind them, and, as far as their dominion reached, civilization disappeared from view. They represented everywhere government by force, as opposed to government by law. ” —William Gladstone, 1876[97]“ The barbarian power, which has been for centuries seated in the very heart of the Old World, which has in its brute clutch the most famous countries of classical and religious antiquity and many of the most fruitful and beautiful regions of the earth ... ignorantly holding in its possession one half of the history of the whole world. ” —Cardinal Newman (1801–1890)“ ... tyrants of the women and enemies of arts ... ” “ ... to chase away from Europe these barbaric usurpers ... ” “ I wish fervently that the Turkish barbarians be chased away immediately out of the country [Greece] of Xenophon, Socrates, Plato, Sophocles and Euripides. If we wanted, it could be done soon but seven crusades of superstition have been undertaken and a crusade of honour will never take place. We know almost no city built by them; they let decay the most beautiful establishments of Antiquity, they reign over ruins. ” —Voltaire (1694–1778), The Orient's Christian Realm“ When I consider history, I find that there has been no nation that has practiced more blasphemy of God, brutally, shameful fornication, and every kind of wild and chaotic living than the Turks. ” “ Lastly, I could show fight on natural selection having done and doing more for the progress of civilization than you seem inclined to admit. Remember what risk the nations of Europe ran, not so many centuries ago of being overwhelmed by the Turks, and how ridiculous such an idea now is! The more civilised so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world. ” “ I never disliked a Chinaman as I do these degraded Turks and Arabs, and when Russia is ready to war with them again, I hope England and France will not find it good breeding or good judgment to interfere. ” —Mark Twain, 1869[100]“ Mosques are plenty, churches are plenty, graveyards are plenty, but morals and whiskey are scarce. ” —Mark Twain, 1869[100]“ ... and lied like a Turk when he said it. ” —Mark Twain, 1869[100]“ ... such individuals as the furthermost Turks found in the remote North, the Negroes found in the remote South, and those who resemble them from among them that are with us in these climes. The status of those is like that of irrational animals. ”
