English

Proper noun

Kitan

1. (historical ethnography) Alternative form of Khitan, in its various senses.
   • 1990, Herbert Franke, "The Forest Peoples of Manchuria: Kitans and Jurchens" in The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Vol. I, p. 400:

     ...the name of the Kitan people has had quite a history by itself. During the 13th century China, or rather Northern China, became known in the Near East and in Europe as Cathay or Catai, a name derived from the ethnic term Kitan.