(t., originally yaylag̲h̲ ), “summer quarters”, applied to the summer residences of the old Turkish ḳag̲h̲ans or the summer pastures of nomadic or transhumant tribes of Inner Asia, its antonym being ki̊s̲h̲laḳ [q.v.] “winter quarters”.
The origin of the word is from yay “summer” (but this originally meant “spring”, cf. Kās̲h̲g̲h̲arī, Dīwān lug̲h̲āt al-turk, Tkish. tr. Atalay, iii, 160-1, though already in the Ork̲h̲on inscriptions it means “summer”, and it comes to mean this in most Turkic languages, with yaylamaḳ “to spend the summer”, cf. Sir Gerard Clauson, An etymological dicti…