Etymologically
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le

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Pronunciation

Forms

le (comparative lejjebb)[1] Old forms include lee (about 1493), lewe (1519) and lé (1660).[2][3]

Etymology

It is a lexicalized case form whose stem is of uncertain origin.[3][2][4] The stem may be inherited from the Finno-Ugric period: it has been compared with Western Mari ləwäl (“lower part”), ləwälnə (“under”) and ləwəc (“from below”), and the reconstruction Proto-Uralic *lȣ̈ (“lower part”) has been set up for the Finno-Ugric period; a Yukaghir word meaning “farther down” has also been compared.[3][2][5] Bárczi took the Finno-Ugric origin as given.[6]

The comparison has serious difficulties.[3][4] The Mari stem may have come by metathesis from ⟨*əl-⟩, which would make it the relative of al instead.[3][5] The Mari word also points to a word of one syllable in the parent language, and such words are of pronominal origin, but Hungarian has no pronoun beginning with ⟨l⟩.[2][3][4]

Within Hungarian, ÚESz and Zaicz start from an older *leé with the lative ending ⟨-é⟩, which gave lé and then, with the vowel shortened, the present form; levé would be secondary, with a hiatus-filling ⟨v⟩ and the lative ending added again.[3][4] TESz instead took the two-syllable form as the original one and the short form as worn down from it, like be, fel and el; ÚESz considers this less likely.[2][3]

It was first an adverb of direction “to a lower place”, and already in the 14th century it was used as a preverb.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Jókai Codex, copied about 1448 from a translation made after 1372: arczayat le nem hayta “he did not bow his face down”;[2][3][5] le is already a preverb there, “down”.[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

As a preverb le expresses mostly movement downwards and the completion of an action.[2] As a free adverb it is recorded as “downward” in Szenczi Molnár's dictionary of 1604, as “to a lower rank” in 1748 and as “below” in 1786; the cry le vele! “down with him!” is from 1802.[2][3] The comparative lejjebb “lower down” (1791) was made on the model of beljebb and kijjebb.[3][4]

In Transylvanian records of the 17th–18th centuries le also means “downstream” and “southwards” (le Fejérvárig).[7] In the ÉrtSz it is used, among other things, for going from the capital to the country, and as a one-word answer that repeats a verb with le.[8]

Timeline

  • 1372–1448 – le … hayta “bowed down” in the Jókai Codex.[2][3]
  • c. 1493 – lee mossad “wash down” in the Festetics Codex.[2][3]
  • 1519 – the two-syllable form lewe in the Jordánszky Codex.[2][3]
  • 1604 – le as a free adverb “downward” in Szenczi Molnár's dictionary.[2][3]
  • 1748 – “to a lower rank”.[2][3]
  • 1786 – “below”.[2][3]
  • 1791 – the comparative lejjebb.[3]
  • 1802 – le vele! “down with him!”.[2][3]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. down, to a lower place: le a pincébe; downstairs, down to the yard or street.[8][1]
  2. Downstream; south, to the southern part of a country.[8][7]
  3. From the capital to the provinces, or from a centre to a subordinate office.[8]
  4. Down a scale or ranking, to the lowest: a királytól le a koldusig.[8][2]
  5. (in exclamations) Down with (someone or something): Le a zsarnokkal![8][2]

Preverb

  1. Down, downwards: lemegy “to go down”, leül “to sit down”.[8][2]
  2. Marks a completed action: leír “to write down”, lefest “to paint”.[2][8]
  3. Used alone as a yes-answer to a question with a le- verb.[8]

Word family

  • lejjebb
  • lent
  • lenn

Usage notes

A separate le, usually repeated, is a call to dogs;[9][10] Herman recorded it from the Szigetköz as a variant of ne.[9][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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 Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 732
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
  4. ^ a b c d e Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
  5. ^ a b c d Lakó, György (ed.) (1967–1978), A magyar szókészlet finnugor elemei, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 392
  6. ^ Bárczi, Géza (1941), Magyar szófejtő szótár, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, p. 106
  7. ^ a b Szabó T., Attila (ed.) (1975–2014), Erdélyi magyar szótörténeti tár, 14 vols., Bukarest: Kriterion / Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó / Kolozsvár: Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bárczi, Géza; Országh, László (eds.) (1959–1962), A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára, 7 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online at ertelmezo.oszk.hu
  9. ^ a b B. Lőrinczy, Éva (ed.) (1979–2010), Új magyar tájszótár, 5 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 748
  10. ^ a b Herman, Ottó (1914), A magyar pásztorok nyelvkincse, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Természettudományi Társulat, p. 595