What is a mongol?

Answer 1

Mongol originally meant one of the native Mongolian people i.e. like Genghis (Chingis) Khan. This did not mean that they were Mongolian (like a Chinese person doesn't have to live in China to be Chinese but to be a Chinese citizen (or a Mongolian) you have to live in the country.

A Mongol is like a 'Native American' and a Mongolian is like an 'American'.

Also, during the Victorian and later periods, the supposedly superior white people needed a reason for the fact their children were born with Down syndrome, and they decided, as some of these children exhibited Asian-like facial qualities, that the only 'logical' reason was that the ancestors of the woman giving birth must in the past have been raped by a Mongol, and this was the bad Mongol blood corrupting the child. Thus retarded children or those with Down syndrome were often known as Mongols or just Mongs.