fél

fél¹ to fear

Pronunciation

• [ˈfeːl]^[1]

Forms

fél^[1]

Etymology

The verb “to fear” is inherited from Proto-Uralic *pele- (“to fear”), one of the words Hungarian inherited from the Uralic period.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Its relatives mean “to fear” across the family: Mansi piľ-, Khanty pĕl-, Komi-Zyrian pol-, Udmurt puwi̮, Erzya peľe-, Moksha peľe-, Finnish pelätä and Northern Sami bâllâ-, and in the Samoyedic branch Tundra Nenets pīľū and Selkup piti̮, with a Kamassian cognate as well.^[3][4][1]

TESz thinks the long vowel of the Hungarian word was a closed /eː/ from the start.^[2] The verb has no connection with its homograph fél² “half”, which goes back to a different Uralic word.^[6][3]

Older scholars compared the Uralic verb with Tungusic and other Altaic words, and with Indo-European words for fear;^[5][2] TESz and the MSzFE leave these comparisons open.^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first certain record is in the Old Hungarian Lament of Mary, dated about 1300 by TESz and to the middle of the 13th century by ÚESz: maraggun urodum, kyth wylag felleyn, in modern spelling maradjon uracskám, kit világ féljen, “let my little lord remain, whom the world should fear”.^[2][3][5] The sense there is “to revere with fear”.^[2][3] Personal names of 1135 and 1138 may contain the verb or its derivatives, but both sources mark them as doubtful.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

TESz and ÚESz take “to be afraid of something” as the original sense, and connect the early personal names with it.^[2][3] The religious sense “to revere with fear”, though recorded first, probably spread under the influence of Ecclesiastical Latin timere Deum (“to fear God”).^[2][3] “To be afraid” and “to be anxious” both appear in the Jókai Codex, copied about 1448 from a text written after 1372.^[2][3]

The derivatives started early: félt “to fear for” perhaps already in the personal name Feltev of 1227, félelem “fear” in the Jókai Codex, félelmes “frightful” in the Vienna Codex, and félénk “timid” in 1536.^[2][3][4] félsz “fear” (1655) is a jocular noun made from the second person singular félsz “you fear”, like mersz from mer.^[2][3][4] féltékeny, félős, félemlít, félelmetes and féltékenykedik are creations of the language reform;^[2][3][4] féltékeny meant “timid” in 1742 and took its present sense “jealous” in 1805, probably from Kazinczy.^[2][3][4]

The Transylvanian records of the 16th and 17th centuries use the verb with a clause, félek, hogy… “I am afraid that…”, and in the phrase azon fél “to fear that”.^[7] The Szeged dialect has similes such as fél, mint a kutya az égzengéstől, “afraid like a dog of thunder”.^[8]

Timeline

• 1227 – Feltev, a personal name, perhaps from the derivative félt.^[3][2]
• c. 1300 – felleyn “should fear” in the Old Hungarian Lament of Mary (ÚESz: middle of the 13th century).^[2][3]
• c. 1448 – “to be anxious” and “to be afraid”, and the noun félelem, in the Jókai Codex (copy of a text written after 1372).^[2][3]
• c. 1450 – félelmes “frightful” in the Vienna Codex (copy of a text written after 1416).^[2][3]
• 1490 – fylthe glossing Latin timuit in the Szalkai glossary.^[2][9]
• 1536 – félénk “timid”.^[2][3]
• 1655 – félsz “fear”.^[2][4]
• 1742 – féltékeny “timid”;^[2][3] “jealous” from 1805.^[2][3]
• 1783–1799 – the language-reform words félős (1783), félemlít (1784) and félelmetes (1799).^[4][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be afraid, to fear: to feel uneasy that some harm or danger will come (with -tól/-től): A gyerek fél a sötétben.^[10][1]
2. To be afraid that something will happen (with a clause): Félek, hogy lekéssük a vonatot.^[10]
3. Not to dare to do something (with an infinitive): Fél egyedül átmenni a hídon.^[10]
4. (archaic, literary; transitive) To fear someone or something, to hold in awe.^[10][1]

Word family

• félelem
• félelmes
• félelmetes
• félemlít
• félénk
• félő
• félős
• félsz
• félt
• féltékeny

fél² half; side; party

Pronunciation

• [ˈfeːl]^[1]

Forms

fél (plural felek)^[1]

Etymology

The noun “half; side” is inherited from Proto-Uralic *pälä (“half; side; one of a pair”), one of the words Hungarian inherited from the Uralic period.^{[11][3][4][12][13][1]} Its relatives are found in every branch: Mansi pǟl, Khanty peḷək, Komi-Zyrian pe̮l, Udmurt pal, Eastern Mari pel, Erzya peľe, Moksha päľä, Northern Sami bælle, Tundra Nenets peľe and Selkup päläk, meaning “half”, “side” or “one of a pair”;^[3][4][13] Kamassian has a cognate too.^[3][4][13] Finnish suupieli (“corner of the mouth”) and pielus (“edge”) are doubtful cognates, because their vowel does not fit.^[11][3][12]

In Mari and Mordvin the words for “side” have one syllable and those for “half” two (Erzya peľ (“side”) beside the form for “half”). TESz takes this for the split of a single word; the MSzFE reports the view that two Uralic words, one for “half” and Proto-Uralic *pele (“side”), merged in the other languages, and the opposite view that the forms split from one word.^[11][12] The vowel of the Hungarian word was a long open /ɛː/ in Old and Middle Hungarian.^[11][3]

ÚESz notes similar words in other families, such as Russian пол (pol) and Albanian palë (“pair”), and TESz leaves possible Indo-European connections open; a Turkic origin is rejected.^[3][14][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word opens the Funeral Sermon and Prayer of about 1195: Latiatuc feleym zumtuchel mic vogmuc, in modern spelling Látjátok, feleim, szemetekkel, mik vagyunk, “You see with your eyes, my brethren, what we are”.^[11][3][12] Feleim “my fellows” shows the sense “fellow man, neighbour”.^[11][3] Personal names of 1135 and 1138 may contain the word, but ÚESz marks them as doubtful.^[3]

Semantic evolution

TESz holds that the senses “half”, “side”, “region” and, as an adjective, “one of a pair” go back to the Uralic period.^[11] It derives “fellow man” from “side” (fele being “the one at his side”), “party” and “wife” from “fellow man”, “middle” from “half”, and the adjective “half” from “one of a pair”; the adverb “halfway” grew out of the sense “not whole”.^[11] ÚESz derives “party” and “middle” from “half” instead, and “wife” from “fellow man”.^[3] Kiss also thinks the legal sense “party” came from “half”, one of two sides that belong together, and compares Old East Slavic половина (polovina, “half”), which in treaties of 1375 also meant a party; he takes the two for parallel developments, not a Slavic calque.^[15]

The Jókai Codex, copied about 1448, already has “half”, “side”, “party” and “one of a pair”;^[11][3] “wife” is recorded in 1519 and “region” and “middle” in 1527.^[11][3] The suffix-like -féle “kind of” (efféle “such”) was at first an independent word, as in fele szolgák “fellow servants” in the Munich Codex, and became a suffix as the second part of compounds.^[11] The legal sense lives on in compounds such as ellenfél, ügyfél, magánfél and üzletfél.^[16]

In the dialects the word also means “relative, kinsman”, and in Moldavian Csángó “friend, companion”, also as a form of address.^[17] It passed into regional speech in Romania as Romanian féle, felă and felie, a half-litre measure of drink.^[18][3] The verb Slovak felovať (“to halve”) may be formed from it, though Slovak has no record of the noun itself.^[19]

Timeline

• 1138 – Feles, a personal name from the derivative feles, in a charter known from a copy of 1329.^[11][3]
• c. 1195 – feleym “my brethren” in the Funeral Sermon and Prayer.^[11][3]
• 1329 – Feelegház, a place name.^[11][20]
• c. 1395 – the adverb “half” in the Besztercei word list.^[11]
• c. 1405 – the adjective “half” in the Schlägl word list.^[11][3]
• c. 1448 – “half”, “side”, “party”, “one of a pair” and -féle in the Jókai Codex (copy of a text written after 1372).^[11][3]
• 1519 – “wife” in the Jordánszky Codex.^[11][3]
• 1527 – “region” and “middle” in the Érdy Codex.^[11][3]
• 1541 – feles “paired” in Sylvester's New Testament.^[11][3]
• 1604 – felényi in Szenczi Molnár's dictionary.^[11][3]
• 1708 – felez “to halve” (as Felezet) in Pápai Páriz's dictionary.^[11][3]
• 1888 – feles “sharecropper working for half the crop”.^[11][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. half: either of two equal parts of a whole, an amount, a distance or a time: A kenyér felét eltettük vacsorára.^[10][1]
2. Either of two parts of something that are not quite equal.^[10]
3. The point that halves a distance or a time; the half hour: Most ütötte el a felet.^[10][1]
4. A side of the body, of a street or of an enclosed place, or the place beside it; someone's side in a dispute.^[10][1]
5. A party: one of the persons or groups in a legal or social relation; a client calling at an office; a business partner; an opponent.^[10][1]
6. (archaic) Fellow man, neighbour; a close companion; a wife.^[10][1]

Adjective

1. Half: making up one of two roughly equal parts: a fél falu “half the village”.^[10]
2. Of the time: thirty minutes before the hour named: fél három “half past two”.^[10][1]
3. One of a pair, especially of body parts and clothes: fél szemére vak “blind in one eye”.^[10][21]
4. Incomplete, unfinished, not whole.^[10]

Adverb

1. Partly, halfway: fél ősz, fél tél “half autumn, half winter”.^[10]

Numeral

1. A fractional numeral: half of a unit of measure: fél kiló, fél óra.^[10][1]

Word family

• fele
• felé
• felel
• feles
• feleség
• felebarát
• felez
• felényi
• -féle
• félig
• félre
• ellenfél
• ügyfél
• házasfél