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Ko·so·vo (kôsə-vō, kō-)
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A republic of the western Balkan Peninsula. Settled by Slavs around 600, the area was under Turkish rule from 1389 to 1913 and became part of Yugoslavia after World War I. An autonomous region of Serbia after 1946, Kosovo lost much of its autonomy in 1990, leading to ethnic violence between Kosovo's Albanian and Serb populations. Intervention by NATO and the United Nations reestablished peace in 1999. In 2008, Kosovo declared independence; however, its sovereignty was not universally recognized at that time. Priština is the capital and largest city.

Koso·var (-vär) adj. & n.
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Kosovo

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.