Friedrich W. K. Müller was the first to propose a characterization for the newly discovered languages. Müller called the languages "Tocharian" (German "Tocharisch"), linking this "toxrï" (Tωγry, "Togari") with the ethnonym "Tókharoi" () applied by Strabo to one of the "Scythian" tribes "from the country on the other side of the Iaxartes" that overran the Greco-Bactrian kingdom (present day Afghanistan-Pakistan) in the second half of the 2nd century BC. This term also appears in Indo-Iranian languages (Sanskrit "Tushara"/"Tukhāra", Old Persian "tuxāri-", Khotanese "ttahvāra"), and became the source of the term "Tokharistan" usually referring to 1st millennium Bactria, as well as the Takhar province of Afghanistan. The "Tókharoi" are often identified by modern scholars with the Yuezhi of Chinese historical accounts, who founded the Kushan Empire.