Etymology-of-the-Massagetae-and-Tomyris-a-try

 

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The great Massagataean people, a confederation of steppe peoples, was a powerful kingdom that rose to power in the 8th C BCE. 

Wiki says they were a part of the Scythian cultures. Their famous queen's name was Tomyris. 

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There are many tries that should prove the both names Massagetae and Tomyris were of Indo-European origin but none of them is convincing. Because there are too many far-fetched and forced proposals and none of them makes really sense. 

My proposal: The name Massagetae should have been Türkish. 

I take the name Basıq as starting point. We know already a Basıq who was in the army of the Huns and then of the Roman Empire. 

Wiki: Basich or Basikh (Greek: Βασίχ, fl. 395) was a Hun military commander who co-led an invasion of Persia in 395 AD together with Kursich. His name should be Türkic deriving from the possible Türkic words that we see below:

1) BARS-IQ: meaning the leopard like (or little leopard-UA). A name that is 100% compatible with Türkic onomastics. 

2)  Başık/Basık: the head/chieftain of a troop, a not high-ranked one. 

These were proposals of the leading scholars in this field. 

Wikis says: 

"Otto Maenchen-Helfen took the ending -ich for the Turkic diminutive -iq; he proposed that Basich came from basiq, meaning "little captain".[1] Omeljan Pritsak instead understood there to be a suffix -siġ, meaning "like something"; he derived Basich from Turkic *bars-siġ with loss of the -r- and degemination, giving a meaning "feline-like". "(link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basich)

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And

3) (this one is my proposal) Basık means also a night raid, from the verb bas-, meaning to raid, to win, to strike, to attack suddenly, to exterminate, etc.

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After those 3 proposals I can come to my point: I think, the name of that Scythian (Türkic) tribe come from the verb bas-. Massaget should have been BASIK-IT (b~m change is possible), meaning the "the night raiders", a troop (every tent was a troop in Steppe Confederations) that perfected the night raid. 

We don't know about their language, because we don't know any word of their language. We know only a couple of Massagetaen names. One of them is the name of their famous queen Tomuris (Τομυρις).

But now look at:

Proto Türkic *damor

means

1 vein, artery 2 root (1 жила, сосуд 2 корень): 

OTurk. tamar, tamɨr 1 (OUygh.); Karakh. tamur (MK, KB), tamar (MK-Oghuz) 1; Tur. damar 1; Gag. damar 1; Az. damar 1; Turkm. damar 1; Sal. tamɨr 1; MTurk. tamur 1, 2 (Sangl., Abush., MA); Uzb. tɔmir 1; Uygh. tomur, temir 1, 2; Krm. tamur 1, 2; Tat. tamɨr 2; Bashk. tamɨr 1, 2; Kirgh. tamɨr 2; Kaz. tamɨr 1, 2; KBalk. tamɨr 1, 2; KKalp. tamɨr 1, 2; Kum. tamur 1, 2; Nogh. tamɨr 1, 2; SUygh. tamɨr 1; Khak. tamɨr 1, 2; Oyr. tamɨr 1, 2; Tv. damɨr 1; Tof. damɨr 1; Chuv. tɨmar 1, 2; Yak. tɨmɨr 1; Dolg. tɨmɨr 1.

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You can read the dialectical variations of the Proto-Türkic word *damor. I would say, this Türkic word is the root of that Türkic queen. 

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As we can see the name of the tribe and its queen are of Türkic origin and we can conclude that (at least) the Elite was Turkish.

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More information about that queen's name you can find here:

https://uzunbacakadem.blogspot.com/2025/02/germanic-chieftain-catumerus-actumerus.html

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Uzunbacak Adem