Generally, the ethnic label "Turk" would not be used frequently in the Ottoman Empire, in the occasions when it was used, it would often be in a rather pejorative manner. It would refer to Turcoman nomads or in later periods to Anatolian Turkish-speaking peasants who were considered ignorant. To call an elite Ottoman subject or an Istanbul gentleman a Turk would be considered an insult. This could be surprising for European travelers, because in the West, the labels Muslim and Turk would have been used nearly interchangeably at the time.