Mordvinia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A region in eastern Europe that is home to the Mordvin, a Finno-Ugric people, and forms part of the Russian Federation
2. An area of eastern European territory inhabited by the Mordvin ethnic group, whose traditional homeland lies along the Volga River
3. The Russian republic in the Volga region that serves as the homeland of the Mordvin people, a Finno-Ugric population

Etymology: Mordvinia is a proper noun, the name of the Mordovia region of the Russian Federation, a republic on the Volga. The name comes from the Mordvins (Mordva), a Finno-Ugric people who have lived in the middle Volga basin for well over a thousand years. The ethnonym was recorded by outsiders, most notably in Russian chronicles and by Arabic and Persian travellers, and it reached English through the Russian form "Mordva" with the Latin-style ending "-ia" added to name a land. The English form "Mordvinia" is therefore a place name built on a people's name, a pattern familiar from many countries and regions named after their inhabitants. The Mordvins' own name for themselves differs from the Russian term, and the outsider name has stuck in both the Russian and English usage of the region.