young Turk

See also: Young Turk

English

Calque of French Jeune-Turc, from which also Turkish Jön Türk has been borrowed.

young Turk (plural young Turks)

(historical) From the late-19th to the early-20th century, a member of a movement that campaigned for reform of the Ottoman Empire.
(idiomatic, by extension) A young person who agitates for political or other reform; a young person with a rebellious disposition.
- 1885, Horatio Alger, Hector's Inheritance, ch. 14:
  "What! Roscoe?" inquired the principal.
  "Yes."
  "Is he in any mischief?"
  "Mischief? I should say so! Why, he's a regular young Turk."
  "A young Turk? I don't think I understand you, James."
  "I mean, he's a young ruffian."
- 1966 Sep. 30, "Jazz: Man with a Brain," Time:
  He arrives at a time when jazz's discontented Young Turks have disdainfully turned away from their audiences and gone off to explore the way-out.

historical: member of a movement of the Ottoman Empire

idiomatic: young person who agitates for reform