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megy

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Pronunciation

Forms

megy[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Uralic *mene- (“to go”), one of the words Hungarian inherited from the Uralic period.[2][3][4][5][1] The verb survives in nearly every branch of the family: Mansi miń-, Khanty měn-, Komi-Zyrian mun-, Udmurt mi̮n-, Eastern Mari mie-, Finnish mennä and Northern Sami mânnâ-, and in the Samoyedic languages Tundra Nenets ḿiń- and Selkup menda- (“to pass by”).[3][2] Kamassian has a verb of the same form and meaning.[3][4][2] In Mari the medial consonant was lost, probably through the stages /ń/ and /j/.[2][5] MSzFE notes that the vowels of the Permic and Finnic forms do not correspond regularly.[5]

Inside Hungarian the stem consonant changed from /n/ through /ɲ/ to /ɟ/, which gives the ⟨gy⟩ of the present tense beside the ⟨n⟩ of the infinitive and the past.[2][5] Before a suffix beginning with a consonant the final consonant fell out, and between vowels it passed through /j/ and disappeared; ÚESz derives the variants mén and mék from such forms with /j/.[2][3] The short form is secondary to the older megyen, as with lesz and visz: the final /n/ of some variants is the personal ending of the third person singular.[3] The stem of mehet was made on the model of tehet and vehet, and the old mednek is a depalatalized variant of a supposed *megynek.[3][2]

Bouda compared a Yukaghir verb meaning “to jump”, and ÚESz also sets beside it an Eskimo verb meaning “to pass through”;[5][3][2] TESz says such links beyond Uralic need further study.[5][3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a derived form in the founding charter of the Abbey of Tihany of 1055, a Latin document with Hungarian words in it: feheruuaru rea meneh hodu utu rea, in modern spelling roughly Fehérvárra menő hadútra, “onto the army road that goes to Fehérvár”.[2][3] The sense there is the one TESz lists first, of a road or river running or leading somewhere.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

TESz and ÚESz both trace every sense back to the one of a person, animal or vehicle moving along; the road sense of the first record and all the abstract senses are transfers of it.[2][3] The dated senses follow one another through the codices: a lifeless object getting somewhere from about 1450 (in a text written after 1416), time or something temporary passing away from 1517, a job or a machine going well or working from 1590, and something fitting into a place from 1590.[2][3] Goods selling well, or an amount being used up, is dated 1515 by TESz and 1616 by ÚESz.[2][3] The sense “to suit, go with something” was first recorded by the ÉrtSz in 1961.[2][3]

The verb has a large family.[4] The verbal noun menés and the possessive form mente “its going” appear in the Jókai Codex;[2][3] mente later came to mean the land along a road or river, and its case forms mentén, mentében became postpositions meaning “along”.[2][3] Menet “going” is in the Besztercei word list of about 1395, mendegél “to walk along slowly” from about 1495, menetel from 1559, meneszt “to send off” from 1787, and mehetnék “an urge to go”, a fixed inflected form, from 1826.[4] The pair jön-megy “to come and go” is recorded from 1590.[3] Its parts gave jöttment, first an adjective (1779) and then a scornful noun for a vagrant or upstart (1805).[3][4]

In Szeged speech the verb also means “to happen” and is often mén, with forms such as mönt.[6] Hungarian speakers in Transcarpathia and the Mura region use it of a clock or machine that works, and in the Mura region of a film that is about something, on the model of Ukrainian and Slovene usage.[7]

Timeline

  • 1055 – meneh of a road leading to Fehérvár, in the Tihany founding charter.[2][3]
  • early 13th century – megy of people and animals moving along, in the Königsberg Fragment (TESz: about 1350).[3][2]
  • after 1372 (copy of about 1448) – menés and mente in the Jókai Codex.[2][3][4]
  • c. 1395 – menet in the Besztercei word list.[3][4]
  • 1517 – of time: “to pass”.[2][3]
  • 1590 – “to work, go well” and “to fit into”;[2][3] jön-megy “to come and go”.[2][3]
  • 1779 – jöttment, from the parts of jön-megy.[3][4]
  • 1826 – mehetnék “an urge to go”.[4]
  • 1961 – “to suit, go with something”, in the ÉrtSz.[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To go, walk: to move on foot towards a place other than where the speaker is: Lassan megyünk haza a parkon át.[8][1]
  2. To travel by vehicle or on an animal; of a vehicle, to run or be on its way: Busszal megyek dolgozni.[8][1]
  3. Of a road or corridor, to lead somewhere.[8]
  4. To go somewhere for a purpose;[8][1] férjhez megy, hozzámegy valakihez: of a woman, to marry someone.[8][1]
  5. To get into a place or state, to end up somewhere: tönkremegy “to be ruined”, nyugdíjba megy “to retire”.[8][1]
  6. To fit into or onto something: Nem megy több ruha a bőröndbe.[8][1]
  7. Of a sum, to amount to;[8][1] egyre megy: it comes to the same.[8][1]
  8. Of a machine, to work, run.[1][7]
  9. Of an activity, to go, turn out;[1] (informal) to succeed: Jól megy neki a matek.[1]
  10. Of time, to pass.[1][2]
  11. To match, go with something (with -hoz/-hez/-höz).[1][2]
  12. Of a programme or show, to be on.[1]

Word family

  • mehetnék
  • mendegél
  • meneszt
  • menet
  • menetel
  • menés
  • menő
  • menten
  • átmegy
  • belemegy
  • bemegy
  • elmegy
  • előremegy
  • felmegy
  • félremegy
  • jöttment
  • menekít
  • menekül
  • Finnish mennä

Usage notes

The verb is irregular: megyek (dialectal mék, menek), mégy or informally mész, megy (dialectal megyen, mén), plural megyünk, mentek, mennek; past ment, infinitive menni, imperative menjen.[8] With preverbs it forms many verbs of its own, such as elmegy, bemegy and kimegy.[8][1]

A separate dialect noun megy (also megye, mödzsö) “the genitals of a mare or cow” is of unknown origin; it is recorded from the 16th century and survives in the east of the language area.[3][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 w x y z Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 877
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
  5. ^ a b c d e f Lakó, György (ed.) (1967–1978), A magyar szókészlet finnugor elemei, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 428
  6. ^ Bálint, Sándor (1957), Szegedi szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 140
  7. ^ a b Termini magyar–magyar szótár: a határon túli magyar nyelvváltozatok szótára, Termini Kutatóhálózat; online at termini.nytud.hu/htonline
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Bárczi, Géza; Országh, László (eds.) (1959–1962), A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára, 7 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online at ertelmezo.oszk.hu
  9. ^ B. Lőrinczy, Éva (ed.) (1979–2010), Új magyar tájszótár, 5 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 1206