Etymologically
Log in

idő

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Hungarian word idő

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1372 Jókai Codex (text written after 1372, copied about 1448)
Borrowed from
Bulgar *üdäγ
Ultimate origin
Proto-Turkic *öd

Pronunciation

Forms

idő (countable and uncountable, plural idők)[1] Old Hungarian ewdewt, ÿdew (üdőt, üdő).[2] Dialect üdő.[3][4] The stem has idej- before some endings: ideje.[3]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Bulgar *üdäγ (“time, weather”), a loan from a Chuvash-type (Oghur) Turkic language taken over before the Hungarian conquest.[2][5][6][1] The Turkic word is Old Turkic öd (“time”); ultimately it goes back to Proto-Turkic *öd (“time”), with parallels in the Mongolic languages.[2][5][1] Wiktionary compares Turkish öğle (“noon”).[1]

ÚESz takes the borrowed form as *ödäk, which became *ideγ in Hungarian: the ⟨d⟩ inside the word and the final ⟨k⟩, a Turkic diminutive suffix, show the Chuvash-type origin.[2][5] Gombocz had already reconstructed Turkic *ödäγ.[7] Róna-Tas and Berta trace the Hungarian form through several early stages to Old Hungarian üdȫ and then the modern form.[6] The ending developed as in bölcső and erő, and the rounded /ü/ became /i/ only in Hungarian.[2][5]

ÚESz finds it less likely that the word is a fixed case form of a demonstrative stem related to ez and ide.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears in the Jókai Codex, a text written after 1372 and copied about 1448, as ewdewt and ÿdew (üdőt, üdő), in the senses “time, duration” and “point in time”.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

“Duration” and “point in time” are the original senses; the others arose in Hungarian.[5][2] “Weather” is perhaps recorded in the Schlägl word list of about 1405 and certainly in 1519;[2] “hour” appears in the Munich Codex, “year” perhaps before 1495 and surely in 1576, “age, era” and, in the plural, “circumstances” in 1527, and the dialect sense “thunderstorm” in 1935.[2] For the link between time and weather ÚESz compares Latin tempestas, which meant time, a period, weather and storm.[2] The Szamos dialect has the word for time, for a lifetime and for weather.[8]

Derivatives followed early: idős “old, aged” in the Munich Codex, idei in 1474, időtlen “untimely” in 1552 (“timeless” from 1827), idősödik about 1577, időzik in 1683, idült in 1806 and időzít in 1892.[2][5] The language reform made compounds such as időköz, időszak, időpont (1803) and időtartam (1854).[9]

Transylvanian records have phrases such as az idő mindent megemészt “time devours everything” (1766), after Latin tempus edax rerum.[10]

Timeline

  • 1372 (copy of about 1448) – ewdewt, ÿdew in the Jókai Codex.[2]
  • 1405 – perhaps “weather”, in the Schlägl word list.[2]
  • 1416 (copy of 1466) – idős “old” and the sense “hour” in the Munich Codex.[2]
  • 1416 (copy of about 1450) – ideiglen “for a while” in the Vienna Codex.[2]
  • 1474 – idei.[2][5]
  • 1519 – “weather”, in the Jordánszky Codex.[2]
  • 1527 – “age, era”, and in the plural “circumstances”, in the Érdy Codex.[2]
  • 1552 – időtlen “untimely”, in Heltai.[2]
  • 1803 – időpont.[9]
  • 1854 – időtartam in Ballagi.[9]
  • 1892 – időzít.[2]
  • 1935 – the dialect sense “thunderstorm”.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. time: the form in which change and succession exist, together with space.[3][1]
  2. A point in time, or a moment fixed by an event; the right time for something: Itt az ideje indulni.[3][1]
  3. A stretch of time between two points; a period or duration.[3][1]
  4. The time shown by a clock.[1]
  5. (in the plural or with a possessive) An era; one's own time, one's youth.[1]
  6. weather.[1]
  7. (sports) A time-out.[1]
  8. (grammar) A tense.[1]

Word family

  • idei
  • ideiglen
  • időbeli
  • időleges
  • időnként
  • idős
  • időses
  • időszerű
  • időtlen
  • időz
  • időzik
  • időzít
  • idősödik
  • idült
  • időköz
  • időszak
  • időpont
  • időtartam

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
  3. ^ a b c d e Bárczi, Géza; Országh, László (eds.) (1959–1962), A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára, 7 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online at ertelmezo.oszk.hu
  4. ^ Szinnyei, József (1893–1901), Magyar tájszótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Hornyánszky, p. 1, 926
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
  6. ^ a b Róna-Tas, András; Berta, Árpád (2011), West Old Turkic: Turkic Loanwords in Hungarian, 2 vols., Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (Turcologica 84); word list via Lexibank
  7. ^ Gombocz, Zoltán (1960), Honfoglalás előtti bolgár-török jövevényszavaink, ed. Lajos Ligeti, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó (Nyelvtudományi Értekezések 24), p. 18
  8. ^ Csűry, Bálint (1935–1936), Szamosháti szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság, p. 1, 406
  9. ^ a b c Szily, Kálmán (1902–1908), A magyar nyelvújítás szótára, 2 vols., Budapest: Hornyánszky
  10. ^ Szabó T., Attila (ed.) (1975–2014), Erdélyi magyar szótörténeti tár, 14 vols., Bukarest: Kriterion / Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó / Kolozsvár: Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület, p. 5, 438

Related etymologies

  • igen · also from Bulgar
  • kis · also from Bulgar
  • úr · also from Bulgar
Cite this entry

“Idő.” Etymologically, 25 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/hu/id%C5%91. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·