- tartar
- "bitartrate of potash" (a deposit left during fermentation), late 14c., from O.Fr. tartre, from M.L. tartarum, from late Gk. tartaron "tartar encrusting the sides of casks," perhaps of Semitic origin. The meaning "encrustation on teeth" (calcium phosphate) is first recorded 1806.
- Tartar
- c.1369 (implied in Tartary, "the land of the Tartars"), from M.L. Tartarus, from Pers. Tatar, first used 13c. in reference to the hordes of Ghengis Khan (1202-1227), said ult. to be from Tata, a name of the Mongols for themselves. Form in European languages probably influenced by L. Tartarus "hell" [e.g. letter of St. Louis of France, 1270: "In the present danger of the Tartars either we shall push them back into the Tartarus whence they are come, or they will bring us all into heaven"]. The historical word for what now are called in ethnological works Tatars. A Turkic people, their native region was east of the Caspian Sea. Ghengis' horde was a mix of Tatars. Mongols, Turks, etc. Used figuratively for "savage, rough, irascible person" (1663); Byron's tartarly (1821) is a nonce-word. To catch a Tartar "get hold of what cannot be controlled" is recorded from 1663; original sense not preserved, but probably from some military story similar to the old battlefield joke:
Irish soldier (shouting from within the brush): I've captured one of the enemy.
Tartar sauce is first recorded 1855, from Fr. sauce tartare.
Captain: Excellent! Bring him here.
Soldier: He won't come.
Captain: Well, then, you come here.
Soldier: I would, but he won't let me.