Urga

See also: urga, urĝa, and ürgə

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Mongolian өргөө (örgöö, “palace”).

Proper noun

Urga

1. (historical) Former name of Ulaanbaatar.
   • 1864, Alexander Michie, The Siberian Overland Route from Peking to Petersburg: Through the Deserts and Steppes of Mongolia, Tartary, &c‎^[1], London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, page 151:

     Mr. Shishmaroff must lead a very solitary life in Urga, having no one with whom to associate but the high Chinese mandarin and the Mongol deputy-khan. His house-supplies are, for the most part, brought from Kiachta, the Russian frontier town, 175 miles distant. The Russian government keeps up a considerable establishment at Urga, the consul having a body-guard of twenty Cossacks, besides the twenty Russian carpenters who are at work on the new house, and other hangers-on.

   • 1900, Archibald R. Colquhoun, The 'Overland' To China‎^[2], Harper & Brothers, page 121:

     It may here be mentioned that the traveller who obtains Russian official assistance can cover the distance between Moscow and Peking in thirty and a half days—that is to say, by rail to Irkutsk, ten and a half days; thence to Kiachta by the post-road, four days; Kiachta to Urga by post-road, three days; thence to Kalgan over the Gobi Desert in ten days, or even less; Kalgan to Peking in three days.

   • 1913, Elizabeth Kendall, A Wayfarer in China: Impressions of a Trip Across West China and Mongolia‎^[3], Houghton Mifflin company, page 285:

     When I was in Urga there was much talk among the Chinese about the railway that was surely coming, and the Kalgan officials said the same thing. One only wonders that it was not done half a dozen years ago; there are no serious difficulties. Once outside the Great Wall, the rails could be laid down on the top of the ground almost as fast as a man could walk. Only as you approach Urga, north of the desert, would there be much in the way of bridging and embanking.

   • 1966, George G. S. Murphy, Soviet Mongolia: A Study of the Oldest Political Satellite‎^[4], University of California Press, page 11:

     Nevertheless, the official impact of Russia on Mongolia was small, and was largely confined to the capital city, Urga. But the wind of change, however light its breeze, is irreversible in its effect. The restoration of Chinese control in 1919 and the resultant loss of autonomy were not to the taste of some of the Mongols who lived and worked in Urga and had benefited from the changes after 1911.

Anagrams

• Guar., Gura, gaur, guar, ragu, ragù, ruga