Three of the eight Pecheneg "provinces" or clans were collectively known as Kangars. According to Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, the Kangars received this denomination because "they are more valiant and noble than the rest" of the people "and that is what the title Kangar signifies". Because no Turkic word with a similar meaning is known, Ármin Vámbéry connected the ethnonym to the Kirghiz words "kangir" ("agile"), "kangirmak" ("to go out riding") and "kani-kara" ("black-blooded"), while Carlile Aylmer Macartney associated it with the Chagatai word "gang" ("chariot"). Omeljan Pritsak proposed that the name had initially been a composite term "(Kängär As)" deriving from the Tocharian word for stone "(kank)" and the Iranian ethnonym "As". If the latter assumption is valid, the Kangars' ethnonym suggests that Iranian elements contributed to the formation of the Pecheneg people.