isten

Forms

isten (plural istenek)^[1] Old and dialect forms include üsten (1544), esten (1550), Ësten, steen and sten.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[5][2] TESz, EWUng and Zaicz take it for a derivative formed from Hungarian is (“forefather”) + -t + -n, from ⟨is⟩, an older variant of ⟨ős⟩ “forefather”, with the diminutive suffixes ⟨-t⟩ and ⟨-n⟩ that are combined also in nőstény.^[6][3][7][1] The word would then have had three syllables at first, as ⟨isemucut⟩ “our forefather” in the Funeral Sermon suggests, and would have meant “little father”, a term of the pagan Hungarians' beliefs.^[3][7] The sources compare Ancient Greek πατήρ (patḗr, “father”), used of Zeus, Latin pater (“father”) in the name of Jupiter, and Finnish ukko (“old man”), whose capitalised form was the name of the chief god of the pagan Finns.^[6][7] TESz itself notes the weak points of this view: no forms of ⟨isten⟩ with ⟨ü⟩ or ⟨ö⟩ are recorded, and in the Funeral Sermon the word has no stem vowel before the suffix.^[6]

ÚESz holds that it is probably an Iranian loanword: a plural meaning “the worshipped ones”, reconstructed as ⟨*ištǟn⟩, from the participle that appears in Avestan išta- (“worshipped, adored”), of the verb yaz- (“to worship”).^[2] The plural would have been reinterpreted as a singular of majesty, “God”, perhaps in Proto-Hungarian.^[2] ÚESz rejects the derivation from ⟨is⟩ on the same grounds TESz gave.^[2] TESz had thought an Iranian loan through Turkic unlikely.^[6] An Iranian origin was proposed early: Munkácsi compared the Pahlavi and Persian word for “god”, ⟨yazdān⟩.^[8]

Budenz connected the stem with Finnish isä (“father”) and Estonian isa (“father”), and saw in ⟨isten nyila⟩ “God's arrow, lightning” a thunder god like the Finnish Ukko.^[9] TESz rejects a Finno-Ugric etymology, a connection with jó, and derivations from German or from a Turkic personal name.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears in the Funeral Sermon and Prayer of about 1195, where God, angered by the first man's sin, casts him out: Horogu vec isten, es veteve wt ez muncas vilagbele, “God grew angry and cast him into this world of toil”.^[6][2] The sense is the Christian God.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The derivatives are recorded early: istenség “godhead” in the Königsberg Fragment of the mid-13th century, istenes as a personal name in 1360, isteni “divine” in the Jókai Codex, isteniség “divine nature” in the Schlägl word list of about 1405, istentelen “godless” as a personal name in 1426, and istenít “to deify” in 1649.^[2][6] A personal name Isten of 1383 may keep the older sense “little father”, if the derivation from is holds.^[6]

Many compounds and set phrases grew around it: istenfélő “God-fearing” (1519), isten nyila “lightning” (1635), istenítélet “ordeal” (1613), istenhozzád “farewell” (1748), a shortening of isten hozzád legyen irgalmas “God be merciful to you”, and istenuccse “upon my honour” (1760), a contraction of isten úgy segéljen “so help me God”.^[3] In Szeged speech the phrase megemlegeti a magyarok istenét “he will remember the God of the Hungarians” means “he will pay for it”.^[10]

The word passed into neighbouring languages mostly in oaths: Romanian isten only in a curse,^[11] Transcarpathian Ukrainian штен (šten, “god”) only in oaths,^[12] and Slovak išten, a jargon word of the saffron pedlars of Turiec;^[13] Slovak dialects also took the exclamation istenem “my God”.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1195 – isten “God” in the Funeral Sermon and Prayer.^[6][2]
• Mid-13th century – istenség “godhead” in the Königsberg Fragment.^[2]
• 1360 – Istenes as a personal name.^[2]
• 1372 or after – isteni “divine” in the Jókai Codex.^[2]
• c. 1405 – isteniség “divine nature” in the Schlägl word list.^[2]
• 1426 – Istentelen as a personal name; as an adjective, “godless”, from 1550.^[6]
• 1544 – the variant üsten.^[2]
• 1649 – istenít “to deify”.^[2]
• 1748 – istenhozzád “farewell”.^[3]
• 1760 – istenuccse “upon my honour”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A god, a deity: a superhuman being of a polytheistic religion believed to rule over people's fates: a görög istenek.^[14][1]
2. (capitalised: Isten) God, the creator, lord and preserver of the world in Christianity, Judaism and Islam.^[14][1]
3. In set phrases of greeting and parting, with the sense faded: Isten hozott! “welcome!”, Isten veled! “goodbye!”.^[14][10]
4. (philosophy) The ultimate cause and end of the existence of the universe.^[14]
5. The embodiment of some supreme power or irresistible force.^[14]
6. (figurative) A person or thing someone values above everything: A pénz az istene.^[14]

Word family

• istenség
• isteni
• istenes
• istentelen
• istenít
• istenhozzád

Related words

• ős
• nőstény

Usage notes

As a name of the God of monotheism it is written with a capital, Isten.^[14][1] Folk sayings with it are many, such as Az Isten nem bottal ver “God does not strike with a stick”, recorded in the Ormánság and, in a looser form, in Transylvania in 1762.^[15][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
3. ^ a b c d e f Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1993–1997), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Ungarischen, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 673
4. ^ Szinnyei, József (1893–1901), Magyar tájszótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Hornyánszky
5. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 242
7. ^ a b c Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
8. ^ Munkácsi, Bernát (1901), Árja és kaukázusi elemek a finn-magyar nyelvekben I: Magyar szójegyzék, Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia
9. ^ Budenz, József (1873–1881), Magyar–ugor összehasonlító szótár, Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia
10. ^ a b Bálint, Sándor (1957), Szegedi szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó
11. ^ Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 465
12. ^ Lizanec, Petro N. (1976), Vengerskie zaimstvovanija v ukrainskih govorah Zakarpat'ja, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 599
13. ^ a b Gregor, Ferenc (2023), A szlovák nyelv magyar elemei, ed. András Zoltán, Budapest: Kairosz, p. 442
14. ^ a b c d e f g Bárczi, Géza; Országh, László (eds.) (1959–1962), A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára, 7 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online at ertelmezo.oszk.hu
15. ^ Szabó T., Attila (ed.) (1975–2014), Erdélyi magyar szótörténeti tár, 14 vols., Bukarest: Kriterion / Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó / Kolozsvár: Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület
16. ^ Kiss, Géza (1952), Ormánysági szótár, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó