Etymologically
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lesz

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Pronunciation

  • [ˈlɛsː], [ˈlɛs][1]

Forms

lesz[1] The verb has a suppletive paradigm: past lett, infinitive lenni, imperative legyen, participle lévő, levő; the old form lészen and the past lőn survive in literary language.[2][1] Dialects have lessz and lösz.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Uralic *le- (“to be, become, live”), a stem of the Finno-Ugric period, with a Hungarian suffix.[3][5][6][1] ÚESz and Zaicz give as cognates of the stem Komi-Zyrian lo- (“to become, be”), Udmurt lu- (“to be; can be”), Eastern Mari liä- (“to become; to give birth (of animals)”), Finnish lienee (“may be”) and Northern Sami lǣ- (“to be, live”), and perhaps Erzya ľevks (“young of an animal”).[3][5] Paasonen and Collinder also compared a Yukaghir verb of the same shape and meaning.[6][3]

The final -sz was a frequentative suffix; it became a mark of the present tense and then part of the stem.[3][5][1] The ⟨v⟩ of levő and other old forms is probably a glide that arose in Proto-Hungarian between vowels: an original ⟨v⟩ or ⟨j⟩ would have survived in Sami.[3][6] The Mari “to give birth” and the Mordvin “young” match the old Hungarian senses “to be born” of this verb and “birth” of lét.[6]

Wiktionary also treats it as the future of van, whose forms it supplies; that verb itself has a separate Finno-Ugric source.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The stem may appear in Hungarian names in a Greek work of about 950, such as the place name Λεβεδία; ÚESz gives these as uncertain records of the sense “to exist”.[3][5][6] The first sure records are in the Funeral Sermon and Prayer of about 1195, with levn and legenec; the sense there is “to become, to be”.[3][6] In modern spelling the prayer asks for the saints hogy legyenek neki segéd Urunk színe előtt, “that they may be a help to him before our Lord”.[7]

Semantic evolution

The Königsberg Fragment of the early 13th century has lesz “to happen, come to pass”, and the Old Hungarian Lament of Mary of the mid-13th century uses it in place of forms of van.[3] The sense “to be born, to arise” is recorded in the Munich Codex (written after 1416).[3][6] The Transylvanian records of the 16th century often use it of children being born: amikor ez világra lészen a gyermek, “when the child is born into this world”.[8]

The derivatives are early too: lehet “may be, is possible” in the Königsberg Fragment, lehetetlen “impossible” and lehetetlenség in the Jókai Codex, lehetséges “possible” in the Munich Codex.[3][5]

In the dialects the present form also expresses probability: Lessz az má vagy hetven esztendős, “he must be seventy by now”.[9][4] Hova lett? asks where someone or something has gone.[9][4]

Timeline

  • c. 950 – Λεβεδία and other names in a Greek source, perhaps containing the stem.[3][6]
  • 1138 – Leue, a derived personal name.[3]
  • c. 1195 – legenec and levn in the Funeral Sermon and Prayer.[3][6]
  • early 13th century – lesz “to happen” and the derivative lehet in the Königsberg Fragment.[3]
  • mid-13th century – lesz for forms of van in the Old Hungarian Lament of Mary.[3]
  • after 1372 (copied c. 1448) – lehetetlen and lehetetlenség in the Jókai Codex.[3]
  • after 1416 (copied 1466) – lesz “to be born” and lehetséges in the Munich Codex.[3]
  • 1578 – the form lészen.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Will be: the future of van.[1][4]
  2. To become, turn into (from: -ból/-ből; into: nominative or -vá/-vé): Orvos lesz belőle.[2][1]
  3. To come into being, be made; of a person, animal or plant, to be born, to grow.[2][1]
  4. To happen, occur, come to pass.[2][1]
  5. To come to belong to someone; to get a name.[2]
  6. Must be, is probably (expressing likelihood).[1][9][4]

Word family

  • lehet
  • lehetetlen
  • lehetséges
  • leendő
  • lény
  • meglesz
  • odalesz

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
  4. ^ a b c d e Bálint, Sándor (1957), Szegedi szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 40
  5. ^ a b c d e Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lakó, György (ed.) (1967–1978), A magyar szókészlet finnugor elemei, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 402
  7. ^ Czuczor, Gergely; Fogarasi, János (1862–1874), A magyar nyelv szótára, 6 vols., Pest: Emich Gusztáv / Athenaeum
  8. ^ Szabó T., Attila (ed.) (1975–2014), Erdélyi magyar szótörténeti tár, 14 vols., Bukarest: Kriterion / Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó / Kolozsvár: Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület, p. 7, 1048
  9. ^ a b c Csűry, Bálint (1935–1936), Szamosháti szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság, p. 2, 30