Kitai

Meaning

1. The Khitans: a former nomadic people of central Asia.
   Naymani & Kara Kitai, id est, nigri Kitai, ex adverso in quandam vallem strictam inter montes duos, per quam nos euntes ad imperatorem eorum transiuimus, similiter conueniunt: & commissum est praelium, in quo Naymani & Kara Kitai a Mongallis sunt deuicti, & maior pars eorum occisa: & alii qui euadere non potuerunt in seruitutem redacti sunt.The Naimani also, and the people called Karakitay [that is, the black Kitay] assembled and banded themselues at a certaine straight valley, where, after a battell foughten they were vanquished by the Mongals. And being thus vanquished they were, the greater part of them, slaine; and others, which could not escape, were carried into captiuitie.1246, John de Plano Carpini, The Voyage of Johannes de Plano Carpini vnto the Northeast parts of the world, in the yeere of our Lord, 1246, Ch. 5, page 54

Origins

From Giovanni da Pian del Carpine's transcription of Khitan [script needed] (Khita(n), probably via Uyghur خىتاي (xitay).