taiga
nounUK /ˈtaɪɡə/
Etymology From Russian тайга́ (tajgá), from South Siberian Turkic (Altai region, for example the Altay or Shor language, cf Khakas: тағ (tağ)), or alternatively Yakut тайга (tayga, “untraversable forest”). Doublet of Tayga.
1
A subarctic zone of evergreen coniferous forests situated south of the tundras and north of the steppes in the Northern Hemisphere.
- The mountains run from the Arctic Island of Novaya Zemlya southwards, dividing the endless wastes of the Siberian taiga and the steppes from the Russian platform in the west.2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 197:
- Like the taiga, he was everywhere, and mysterious—a heroic being with unearthly gifts.2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 871:
1 more example
- The taiga is anything but pristine wilderness: It is an inhabited landscape where the indigenous Sámi and their reindeer have lived ever since the ice retreated 10,000 years ago. […] Reindeer are well suited to the taiga’s frigid winters. They can maintain a thermogradient between body core and the environment of up to 100 degrees, in part because of insulation provided by their fur, and in part because of counter-current vascular heat exchange systems in their legs and nasal passages.2013 March 23, Nancy Langston, “Mining the Boreal North”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 13 Apr 2016, page 98:
- Derived terms
- taiga flycatcher