Nonni

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “from Manchu ᠨᠣᠨ ᡳ ᡠᠯᠠ, via Russian Но́нни?”)

Nonni

1. (dated) Synonym of Nen (a river in northeast China).
   • 1904, Alexander Hosie, Manchuria: Its People, Resources and Recent History‎, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 148:

     In the western range, and about sixiy miles from the Argun River, rises the Nonni, the most important waterway flowing through the province. On its way to the Sungari, which it joins at Shui-shih-ying-tzu, twenty miles to the north of the town of Petuna (Hsin Ch'eng), it passes on its left bank the town of Mergen and Tsi-tsi-har, known to the Chinese as Pu-k'uei, the capital of the province.

   • 1922, South Manchuria Railway, Manchuria: Land of Opportunities‎, New York: Thomas F. Logan, page 12:

     Waterways: the Amur River is navigable for 450 miles for steamers and 1,500 miles for smaller craft; the Sungari is navigable to Kirin, the Nonni to Tsitsihar, the Liao to Tungkiangtze, and the Yalu for its entire course.

   • 1945, John B. Powell, “Russia, China, and Japan”, in My Twenty-five Years in China‎, New York: The MacMillan Company, →OCLC, page 199:

     The Chinese general in question was a picturesque figure named Ma Chanshan. General Ma had first held up and defeated the vanguard of the Japanese invaders at the Nonni River, on the southern border of the Russian sphere in North Manchuria.

• Rhymes: -ɔnːɪ

Nonni m (proper noun, genitive singular Nonna)

1. A pet form of the male given name Jón.

• Jonni