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Etymology and origin of the Hungarian word keres

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1372 Jókai Codex (text written after 1372, copied about 1448)
Ultimate origin
Proto-Uralic *kerä

Pronunciation

  • [ˈkɛrɛʃ][1]

Forms

keres[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Hungarian ker- + -s, a frequentative suffix, as in olvas and repes.[2][3][4][1] The stem is the one in kerül, kerít, kerek and kerget, which goes back to the Finno-Ugric period, to Proto-Uralic *kerä (“round, turning; to turn”).[3][4][1] ÚESz and Zaicz compare Mansi kir- (“to go round sideways”), Khanty käri- (“to turn round”), Finnish kierä (“twisted”) and kiero (“crooked”).[3][4]

The sense “to seek” would come from going round in circles: EWUng, ÚESz and Zaicz connect it with the roaming of hunting and fishing peoples in search of food.[5][3][4] The same development is seen in Latin circō (“to go round”), which gave Italian cercare and French chercher “to look for”, and in Latin ambiō (“to go round; to court someone's favour”).[2][5][3]

TESz gave a second explanation beside this one: a derivative of kér “to ask for”, in the sense “to want”;[2][6] Bárczi had derived the word from ⟨kér⟩.[2][6] EWUng and ÚESz reject this explanation as wrong.[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Jókai Codex, copied about 1448 from a text written after 1372: meg kereſe “(he) sought (him)”, telling how a man sought out Saint Francis; the sense is “to try to find”.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Most of the senses appear in the codices.[2][3] Beside “to try to find”, the Jókai Codex already has “to acquire”;[2][3][5] “to strive to do something” follows in the Vienna Codex, and “to aim at a state” and “to inquire after someone” in the Munich Codex, “to persecute” in the Apor Codex.[2][3][5] “To profit from something” is recorded in 1513, “to earn (money) by regular work” in the Jordánszky Codex of 1519, and “to sue someone at law” in 1559.[2][3] The Munich Codex's word list of 1466 glosses the verb with German suchen and nachforschen.[7]

Transylvanian records of the 16th–18th centuries show the verb for looking for lost goods and for calling on someone at home, and the phrase keresi a halált magának “to court one's own death”.[8] In Szeged and the Ormánság it also means “to earn money”, and Mit keres itt? asks what someone or something is doing in a place.[9][10] In ÚMTSz it also means “to ask” and “to go to law”.[11]

The derivative kereskedik “to trade” is recorded from the Vienna Codex;[5] EWUng explains it by the travelling merchants who went from place to place.[5] kereslet “demand” was made in the language reform (1842) with a suffix -let wrongly abstracted from words such as felelet.[2][3]

Timeline

  • 1372 – meg kereſe “sought” in the Jókai Codex (text written after 1372, copied about 1448); also keresés and kereset.[2][3]
  • 1416 – kèrèſnᶜ vala “(they) were seeking” in the Vienna Codex (text written after 1416, copied about 1450), with the sense “to strive”.[3]
  • 1456 – keresget in the Sermones Dominicales.[2][3]
  • 1466 – the Munich Codex: “to inquire after” and “to aim at a state”.[2]
  • 1513 – “to profit from something”.[2][3]
  • 1519 – “to earn (money)”, in the Jordánszky Codex.[2][3]
  • 1559 – “to sue someone at law”.[2][3]
  • 1604 – keresgél in Szenczi Molnár's dictionary.[2][3]
  • 1842 – kereslet, a word of the language reform.[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To look for, search for a person or thing that is lost or whose place one does not know: Egész délelőtt a kulcsomat kerestem.[12][1]
  2. To try to find or catch someone, to hunt for a person.[12]
  3. To want to meet or speak with someone, and ask after him: Valaki keresett telefonon.[12]
  4. To seek something unknown that one needs (a person, a thing, a way or the right words).[12]
  5. To strive for a state or situation: békét keres “to seek peace”.[12]
  6. Of goods (third person plural): to be in demand.[12]
  7. To earn money by work: Jól keres.[1][9]

Word family

  • kereset
  • keresés
  • keresgél
  • kereskedik
  • kereslet
  • keresmény
  • kerestet
  • keresget
  • kereső
  • kerek
  • kering
  • kerít
  • kerül
  • kerget
  • Finnish kierä

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 o p q r Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 456
  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. ^ a b c d Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1993–1997), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Ungarischen, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 780
  6. ^ a b Bárczi, Géza (1941), Magyar szófejtő szótár, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, p. 93
  7. ^ Szabó T., Ádám (ed.) (1985), A Müncheni Kódex szókincse (Der Wortschatz des Münchener Kodex), with the text of the Müncheni Kódex 1466 ed. Antal Nyíri and Gyula Décsy, Budapest, p. 425
  8. ^ Szabó T., Attila (ed.) (1975–2014), Erdélyi magyar szótörténeti tár, 14 vols., Bukarest: Kriterion / Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó / Kolozsvár: Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület, p. 6, 429
  9. ^ a b Bálint, Sándor (1957), Szegedi szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 1, 724
  10. ^ Kiss, Géza (1952), Ormánysági szótár, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 293
  11. ^ B. Lőrinczy, Éva (ed.) (1979–2010), Új magyar tájszótár, 5 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 219
  12. ^ a b c d e f Bárczi, Géza; Országh, László (eds.) (1959–1962), A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára, 7 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online at ertelmezo.oszk.hu
Cite this entry

“Keres.” Etymologically, 25 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/hu/keres. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·