1871 R. B. Shaw Visits to High Tartary ii. 26 All the Khokandees whom I met with in Eastern Toorkistân agreed in affirming that Sart is merely a word used by the Kirghiz to denote all who do not lead a nomad existence like themselves, whether they be Tajiks or Oosbeks.

1879 Encycl. Brit. IX. 85/2 Tajiks..in the chief towns and central districts, who are known as Sarts, show a large infusion of Uzbeg and other Turki blood.

1920 Blackwood's Mag. Jan. 89/1 The definite separation of the race into two, the Sarts or sedentary hordes, and the wandering hordes.

1920 Glasgow Herald 31 Aug. 8 It is among the highly intelligent Sarts and Tadjiks, speaking Persian and Arabic fluently and many of them conversant with Hindustani, that the Bolshevists find their cleverest agents.

1953 O. Caroe Soviet Empire iii. 34 It was to sedentary dwellers of this kind, whether bilingual or speaking only Tajik, that the true Turks formerly applied the pejorative appellation of ‘Sart’.

1964 R. A. Pierce in N. J. Couriss tr. K. K. Pahlen Mission to Turkestan 10 Pahlen..regarded the Sarts as a distinct ethnic group with their own language. Originally..the word was applied to the sedentary, and..urban, population of Turkestan without any reference to race or language. A Sart might..be of Tadzhik.., Uzbek.., or of mixed Iranian and Turkic stock; and..speak..Tadzhik or Uzbek... There is no such thing as a Sart language. During the Soviet régime the word acquired a derogatory significance and is now no longer used.

1900 ‘Odysseus’ Turkey in Europe iii. 101 Sart, though now commonly used as a name for the Jagatai Turkish spoken in those provinces [sc. Fergana, Turkestan, etc.] is, strictly speaking, not a linguistic designation, but denotes a dweller in cities and a merchant, as distinguished from a countryman and agriculturist, called Tajik.

1954 M. A. Pei & F. Gaynor Dict. Linguistics 190 Sart, an Asiatic language; member of the Central Turkic group of the Altaic sub-family of the Ural-Altaic family of languages.