Chechen

noun

Che·​chen

chə̇ˈchen

plural Chechen or Chechens

1

a

: a people historically native to Chechnya in the northern Caucasus, Russia

b

: a member of such people

2

: the Northeast Caucasian language of the Chechens

Word History

Etymology

earlier Tchetchenzes, Tschetschenzes (plural), borrowed from French Tchetchenzes, Tchetchentzes or German Tschetschenzen, borrowed from Russian čečency, plural of čečenec, derivative from a base čečen-, from Čačan, Čečen, later Čečen-Aul, village at the center of a 17th-century tribal polity on the Argun plain in Chechnya

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