Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of a Finno-Ugric people inhabiting western Siberia.
  • noun The Ugric language of this people.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a member of the nomadic Ugrian people living in northwestern Siberia (east of the Urals)
  • noun a Ugric language (related to Hungarian) spoken by the Ostyak

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Russian, from Ostyak āsyakh, pl. of āskho, person from the Ob River, from Ās, the Ob River.]

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Examples

  • The Ostyak tribe of Northern Asia give us a specimen of the rude imitative dances of early civilization in a Pantomimic exhibition of the

    A History of Pantomime R. J. Broadbent

  • But he speaks Russian and Zyryan fluently, and two Ostyak dialects which barely resemble each other.

    My Life Trotsky, Leon 1930

  • The secret police at the station looked on indifferently as I extricated myself from my Ostyak fur coats.

    My Life Trotsky, Leon 1930

  • I had on two fur coats-one had fur in side, the other outside fur stockings, fur boots, a double-lined fur cap, and fur gloves; in short, the complete winter out fit of an Ostyak.

    My Life Trotsky, Leon 1930

  • For thousands of versts there are no police, and not a single Russian settlement, only occasional Ostyak huts.

    My Life Trotsky, Leon 1930

  • This class is composed of the Ostyak and Kot on the Yenisei River, the Gilyak and Ainos at the mouth of the

    Influences of Geographic Environment On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography Ellen Churchill Semple 1897

  • Ostyak and the Tunguse many tales resembling that of the bird Roc in the _Thousand and One Nights_.

    The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II Alexander Leslie 1866

  • The Samoyed tent is commonly covered with reindeer skins, the Ostyak tent with birch bark.

    The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II Alexander Leslie 1866

  • He is very glad when he can shoot a sable; because the Russian emperor requires every Ostyak to give him yearly, as a tax, the skins of two sables.

    Far Off Favell Lee Mortimer 1840

  • She wore a veil of thick cloth over her head, as all the Ostyak women do, and as she did not need light, she hid her head completely under it.

    Far Off Favell Lee Mortimer 1840

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