samoyed

noun

1. a member of a Uralic people dwelling in W Siberia and the far NE parts of European Russia.
2. Also Samoyedic. a subfamily of Uralic languages spoken by the Samoyed people.
3. (sometimes lowercase) one of a Russian breed of medium-sized dogs that have long, dense, white or cream hair and are used by the Samoyed people for herding reindeer and pulling sleds.

noun

1. plural -yed or -yeds a member of a group of peoples who migrated along the Russian Arctic coast and now live chiefly in the area of the N Urals: related to the Finns
2. the languages of these peoples, related to Finno-Ugric within the Uralic family
3. (səˈmɔɪɛd) a Siberian breed of dog of the spitz type, having a dense white or cream coat with a distinct ruff, and a tightly curled tail

n.Siberian Mongolian people, 1580s, from Russian samoyed (11c.), traditionally literally “self-eaters,” i.e. “cannibals” (the first element cognate with same, the second with eat), but this might be Russian folk etymology of a native name: The common Russian etymology of the name Samoyed, meaning “self-eater,” deepened the Russians’ already exotic image of far-northerners. The most probable linguistic origin of Samoyed, however, is from the Saami — saam-edne, “land of the people” [Andrei V. Golovnev and Gail Osherenko, “Siberian Survival: The Nenets and Their Story,” Cornell University, 1999] Which would make the name a variant of Suomi “Finn.” The native name is Nenets. As the name of a type of dog (once used as a working dog in the Arctic) it is attested from 1889.