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Well attestedNamed from the place

Balkanization

noun · first attested 1910s

The word for fragmentation goes back to a Turkish word for a wooded mountain.

The fragmentation of a region or a system into small and often hostile parts.

Balkans·

42.0000°N 22.0000°E · Q23522

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Record

Relationship
Named from the place
Confidence
Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
Attested
1910s
Part of speech
noun

Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.

How it traveled
  1. Step 1

    Balkans

  2. In English

    Balkanization

The entry

Balkan is Turkish for a chain of wooded mountains, applied first to the range crossing Bulgaria and then to the whole peninsula. The Oxford English Dictionary records balkanization from 1914, and the word spread during the Versailles negotiations of 1919. The mountain range that started it is only about 560 kilometers long.

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