Caucasus

Via Latin Caucasus, from Ancient Greek Καύκασος (Kaúkasos).

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• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːkəsəs/
• Homophone: caucuses

Caucasus

1. A mountain range in Eastern Europe between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, on territory of Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, which includes the ranges of Greater Caucasus and Lesser Caucasus.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     Oh who can hold a fire in his hand / By thinking on the froſtie Caucaſus? / Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite, / by bare imagination of a Feaſt?

   • 1851, Lieutenant Maturin Murray, The Circassian Slave, or The Sultan's Favorite:

     […] from the long and rugged ravines of the Caucasus, […]

   • 1887, Walter Savage Landor, Gebir:

     Driven with that weak blast which Winter leaves, / Closing his palace gates on Caucasus, / […]

   • 1895, Robert W. Chambers, The King In Yellow:

     Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium writhed in the throes of Anarchy, while Russia, watching from the Caucasus, stooped and bound them one by one.

2. (geopolitics) A geopolitical region in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, deriving its name from the aforementioned mountains.

• Usually referred to as the Caucasus, but not always (see quot. 1887)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Καύκασος (Kaúkasos).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkau̯.ka.sʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkaːu̯.ka.s̬us]

Caucasus m sg (genitive Caucasī); second declension

1. Caucasus

Second-declension noun, singular only.

• Catalan: Caucas
• French: Caucase
• Galician: Cáucaso
• Italian: Caucaso
• Occitan: Caucàs
• Portuguese: Cáucaso
• Romanian: Caucaz
• Spanish: Cáucaso
  • → Basque: Kaukaso
• → Arabic: اَلْقَوْقَاز (al-qawqāz)
  • → Azerbaijani: Qafqaz
  • → Pashto: قفقاز (qafqāz, qavqāz)
  • → Classical Persian:
    • Persian: قفقاز (qafqâz)
    • Tajik: Қафқоз (Qafqoz)
  • → Tatar: Qawqaz
• → Danish: Kaukasus (learned)
• → Dutch: Kaukasus (learned)
• → English: Caucasus (learned)
• → Finnish: Kaukasus (learned)
• → German: Kaukasus (learned)
• → Hungarian: Kaukázus (learned)
• → Middle Irish: Cucas
  • Irish: Cugas
• → Russian: Кавказ (Kavkaz) (see there for further descendants)