Timbuktu
15
7.0
- proper noun
- /ˌtɪmˈbʊktu/
:
Tombuctú
- Thus our perceptions are warped by tales of splendid Timbuktu and of golden caravans miraculously springing up from the sands.
- Timbuktu's manuscripts
- Timbuktu, Mali
- Timbuktu, the Djingareiber mosque
I could land in a random village in Timbuktu, you know, and I could be useful.
- I could land in a random village in Timbuktu, you know, and I could be useful.
- But once you get past like Mokti or into Mokti and then into like Timbuktu, like that's a freaking place.
Examples
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It's hard to predict what further study of Timbuktu's manuscripts will eventually reveal.
Academic text (2004) -
Many powerful sovereigns wanted to control Timbuktu, and sometimes they did; but it never became the capital of anything.
Academic text (2007) -
I could land in a random village in Timbuktu, you know, and I could be useful.
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We're from the area around Timbuktu, from the desert.
Academic text (2005) -
Through it all, the literary tradition of Timbuktu didn't die.
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Another issue is the significance of Timbuktu's manuscript collections compared to others in West Africa.
Academic text (2004) -
One way or another, the nomads made the desert their home and founded Timbuktu in the eleventh century.
Academic text (2007) -
Over the centuries, Timbuktu has been owned by a succession of foreign emperors, kings, and sultans.
Academic text (2007) -
While the empire flourished, from 1464 until about 1600, its kings ruled over Timbuktu.
Academic text (2007) -
The fabled city of Timbuktu is an oasis of culture in the middle of the desert.
Idioms
Surface Forms
Etymology
Timbuktu most likely comes from an old Tuareg phrase tin- 'place of' plus Buktu, a person's name, so it meant 'the place of Buktu'. It's like 'Petersburg' meaning 'Peter's town', and that helps explain how the small named place grew into a famous city of trade and learning.