Etymologically
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hagy

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Pronunciation

Forms

hagy (past hagyott, imperative hagyjon, infinitive hagyni); a regional and older 3rd person form is hágy.[2][1] Old and dialect forms: el hagÿuan and elhadnÿ in the Jókai Codex, haacz (1531); dialect hajunk and Moldavian Csángó hogysz; the infinitive hadni in Háromszék.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Uralic *kaďa- (“to leave; to remain”), one of the words Hungarian inherited from the Uralic period.[3][5][1][6] Its cognates include Mansi kōľ- “to leave”, Khanty kăj- “to leave behind”, Komi-Zyrian koľ- “to leave; to remain”, Udmurt ki̮ľ- and Erzya kado- “to leave”, Finnish katoa- “to vanish”, Northern Sami guođđe- “to leave behind” and Selkup kuetja- “to leave”, and a Kamassian verb meaning “to remain”.[3][5] For the change of the Uralic palatal consonant to Hungarian /ɟ/ ⟨gy⟩ the sources compare ágy.[3][5]

The original sense was probably “to leave; to remain”.[6][5] ÚESz notes a Turkic verb meaning “to remain” as a match; the MSzFE lists older comparisons with Turkic and other Altaic verbs, and rejects the link of Finnish kaataa (“to fell”) made by Budenz.[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A personal name Hagya in a charter of 1211 may contain the verb.[3] The certain records begin in the Jókai Codex, copied about 1448 from a text written after 1372: el hagÿuan “leaving” and elhadnÿ “to leave”, in the sense “to abandon, to leave someone”.[3][6] MSzFE also gives the personal name Holnyahagow of 1355.[6]

Semantic evolution

From “to leave” came the other senses, a development that ÚESz and Zaicz compare with that of leave and French laisser.[3][5] The Jókai Codex already has “let, allow”, “bequeath” and “order, command” (today mostly meghagy); “leave something as it is” follows in the Vienna Codex, “entrust” in 1470, “stop doing” (now abbahagy, felhagy) about 1476, “sell (at a price)” about 1512, “approve” (now jóváhagy) in 1559 and “put off for later” in 1570.[3]

The family is large and old: hagyomány meant “divorce” in the Munich Codex of 1466, “legacy” from 1478 and “tradition” in Szenczi Molnár's dictionary of 1611;[3][5] hagyás is recorded from 1470, hagyományos from 1694, and hagyaték “estate of a dead person”, a word of the language reform, from 1784.[3][5] The imperative hagyd “let!” became the particle hadd “let (me, him…)” by assimilation of ⟨gyd⟩ to ⟨dd⟩.[7][3]

In the dialects it also means “to lower the price”, “to grow (a beard)” and “to cut (a garment) to a size”.[8][9]

Timeline

  • 1211 – Hagya, a personal name, perhaps containing the verb.[3]
  • 1355 – Holnyahagow, a personal name.[6]
  • c. 1448 – el hagÿuan, elhadnÿ, and the senses “let”, “bequeath” and “order”, in the Jókai Codex (copy of a text written after 1372); also had, the particle hadd.[3][7]
  • 1466 – hagomannac “divorce”, the first record of hagyomány, in the Munich Codex.[3]
  • c. 1476 – “stop doing” in the Szabács Viadala.[3]
  • 1478 – hagyomány “legacy”.[3]
  • 1559 – “approve, sanction”.[3]
  • 1611 – hagyomány “tradition” in Szenczi Molnár's dictionary.[3]
  • 1784 – hagyaték “what is left behind”, later “estate”.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To leave something as it is, not to change it: Hagyd nyitva az ajtót![2][1]
  2. To leave something or someone somewhere, not to take it along: Otthon hagytam a kulcsomat.[2][1]
  3. To leave someone behind, to go away from someone; also, of the dead, to leave someone behind.[2]
  4. To let, allow: not to prevent someone from doing something: Hagyd, hadd játsszon![2][1]
  5. To leave alone, not to disturb or bother: Hagyj békén![2][9]
  6. To leave part of a meal or a job for later.[2]
  7. To entrust something to someone.[2]
  8. To bequeath, to leave as an inheritance (with -ra/-re): A házát a fiára hagyta.[2][1][8]
  9. (colloquial) To lower the price in bargaining.[2][8]
  10. (literary, rare) To order, to command.[2]

Word family

  • hadd
  • hagyaték
  • hagyatkozik
  • hagyomány
  • hagyás
  • hagyományos
  • elhagy
  • abbahagy
  • meghagy
  • jóváhagy
  • helybenhagy
  • Finnish katoa

Usage notes

hadd “let (me, him…)” is the imperative hagyd turned into a particle, and in the dialects the form hagy is used in the same way: the ÉrtSz, ÚMTSz and Wiktionary record hagy as a popular or dialectal synonym of it.[7][2][10][1] Fixed phrases include faképnél hagy “to walk out on someone” and cserben hagy “to leave in the lurch”.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bárczi, Géza; Országh, László (eds.) (1959–1962), A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára, 7 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online at ertelmezo.oszk.hu
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
  4. ^ Szinnyei, József (1893–1901), Magyar tájszótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Hornyánszky, p. 1, 776
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lakó, György (ed.) (1967–1978), A magyar szókészlet finnugor elemei, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 240
  7. ^ a b c Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 14
  8. ^ a b c d Bálint, Sándor (1957), Szegedi szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 1, 544
  9. ^ a b Csűry, Bálint (1935–1936), Szamosháti szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság, p. 1, 348
  10. ^ B. Lőrinczy, Éva (ed.) (1979–2010), Új magyar tájszótár, 5 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 786