Peking

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The former name of the capital city of China, now officially known as Beijing; a historical term used in older English texts referring to the same city; sometimes used to denote cultural or culinary items originating from that city
2. An outdated designation for China’s capital city currently called Beijing; a term largely found in historical or Western contexts; also associated with traditional aspects or products linked to that metropolitan area
3. A traditional English name for the capital of the People’s Republic of China, now replaced by Beijing in official usage; commonly seen in historical references and older Western literature; occasionally used to refer to cultural elements connected to that city

Etymology: The city's name reached English through a Jesuit's Latin atlas rather than through any English traveller. In 1654 and 1655, the Italian Jesuit Martino Martini published works in Latin, including the "Novus Atlas Sinensis," that used the spelling Peking. These were quickly translated into English, and the spelling spread from there. Before that, Portuguese and Jesuit writers had used "Paquim," and the mapmaker Abraham Ortelius wrote "C. Paquin" in his 1572 atlas. The spelling settled in English through a shift in the Chinese pronunciation itself. The Mandarin of the Nanking court rendered the city's name, 北京 (Běijīng), with a hard "k" sound, which Western spellings captured as "k." Peter Heylyn's "Cosmographie" changed from "Paquin" in 1652 to "Peking" in 1658, and for a time "Pekin" and "Peking" were used interchangeably. The Chinese Imperial Post adopted "Peking" as its official transcription in the 1890s, which fixed the form in Western use.

Synonyms: beijing