taiga

Where does the word "taiga" come from? It comes from Russian taiga, and was adopted directly into English (1880s).

Taiga’s story begins in Russian: taiga meant “subarctic coniferous forest.” The vast coniferous forest belt of the subarctic, borrowed from a Siberian Turkic language. It reached English by 1880s as taiga. Russian, from a Turkic word for mountain forest; the world's largest land biome. Today, taiga means the coniferous forest biome of the subarctic region.

1. Stage 1 · Russian · 1800s taiga "subarctic coniferous forest", the vast coniferous forest belt of the subarctic, borrowed from a Siberian Turkic language.
2. Stage 2 · English · 1880s taiga "the subarctic coniferous forest biome", Russian, from a Turkic word for mountain forest; the world's largest land biome.