An archaic name for China, used by medieval and Renaissance Europeans.
From Old French Cathay, derived from Persian and Arabic intermediaries, ultimately from Kitai (a Mongol/Jurchen people of northern China). Medieval Europeans adopted this term through trade routes and Mongol contacts.
Medieval Europeans called China 'Cathay' because they got the word from Arabic traders and Persian merchants—it's not even the Chinese name for themselves, showing how geography spread through multiple languages like a game of telephone!
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