Kytay

English

Etymology

Variant of earlier Kitai (“the Khitan people, their language”), which see.

Proper noun

Kytay

1. (historical geography, obsolete) Synonym of Cathay, as the land of the Khitans.
   • 1598, Richard Hakluyt translating John de Plano Carpini as The Voyage of Johannes de Plano Carpini vnto the Northeast parts of the world, in the yeere of our Lord, 1246, Ch. 9, page 116:

     The men of Kytay are Pagans, hauing a speciall kinde of writing by themselues, and (as it is reported) the Scriptures of the olde and newe Testament.