miatt

Forms

miatt^[1] Old and regional forms: miá (the oldest, from about 1195), miattán (1519), mián (1653), mihátt (Vas county, 1838), mijá.^[2][3][4] With personal endings it is miattam, miattad, miatta “because of me, you, him or her”.^[3][5]

Etymology

It is from Hungarian mi (“what, something”) + -á (“lative suffix”) + -t (“locative suffix”), a fossilised case form.^[2][3] The pronoun in its indefinite use took the lative ending, which gave miá, and then the locative ending ⟨-t⟩ (later ⟨-tt⟩).^[2][3][6][1] The back-vowel form of the lative after a front-vowel stem became fixed in the same way as in idáig.^[3] The rarer mián and miattán were made from the shorter forms after the abstract senses had arisen, with the locative ⟨-n⟩, which in ⟨miattán⟩ follows the possessive ending of the third person.^[2][3]

At first the word expressed place, like által and keresztül.^[2][3] The instrumental sense “through, by means of” grew out of it, which in turn gave the causal sense “because of”.^[2][3][6] Its use for “throughout” a place or a time in the codices may imitate Latin per (“through; by means of”).^[7] For the joint marking of cause and purpose TESz compares the case ending -ért, French pour and German wegen.^[7]

TESz rejects every explanation of the word as a compound, and ÚESz thinks it hardly probable that the family started from the form in ⟨-á⟩.^[7][2] Czuczor and Fogarasi had taken it for a contraction of ⟨mi által⟩ “by what”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The older form miá is already in the Funeral Sermon and Prayer of about 1195, in uimadſagucmia “through their prayers” (modern imádságuk miá), where TESz reads it with a query as “because of”, and ÚESz also allows “by means of”.^[3][2] Miatt itself first appears in the Jókai Codex, a copy of about 1448 of a text written after 1372: emberekmÿat meg vtaltattot es meg meuettetett “he was hated and despised by men”, with the sense “by, through”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the codices miatt meant “by, through” and also “during, throughout” a span of time; the causal “because of”, which TESz marks with a query in the Jókai Codex, is plain in the Sermones Dominicales of about 1456 and became the main sense of the word only much later.^[3][2] From 1517 it also meant “all over” an area.^[3] Beside a verb of possibility it came to mean “as far as someone is concerned” (1771), as in miattam elmehetsz “you may go for all I care”.^[3][8] Since 1784 it can also express purpose, “for the sake of”, a late use according to TESz.^[3][2][8]

Czuczor and Fogarasi described it as marking an unwelcome cause, and contrasted it with végett, used for an aim or a favourable reason.^[5] The Transylvanian records from 1570 on show it for a cause or someone's fault, and once, in 1834, for a purpose.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1195 – mia, the older form, in the Funeral Sermon and Prayer.^[3][2]
• after 1372 (copy of about 1448) – miatt “by, through” and “during” in the Jókai Codex.^[3][2]
• c. 1456 – “because of” in the Sermones Dominicales.^[3]
• 1517 – “all over (an area)”.^[3]
• 1519 – miattán “by, through” in the Jordánszky Codex.^[2]
• 1570 – first of the Transylvanian records, for a cause.^[9]
• 1653 – mián “because of”.^[2]
• 1771 – “as far as someone is concerned”, with a verb of possibility.^[3][2]
• 1784 – “for the sake of, in order to”, in Baróti Szabó's dictionary.^[3][2]
• 1838 – mihátt recorded as a regional form.^[3]

Meanings

Postposition

1. because of, owing to: names the cause of something, often an unwelcome one: A köd miatt késett a vonat.^[8][1]
2. With a passive verb: by, through the action of the person or thing named.^[8]
3. By means of something.^[8]
4. Because of an obstacle: A zaj miatt nem hallottam semmit.^[8]
5. With a verb of possibility: as far as someone is concerned, for all I care: Miattam maradhatsz.^[8][2]
6. For the sake of, in order to (a use like végett).^[8][1]

Word family

• miatti

Related words

• mi
• miá

Usage notes

Miatt takes the personal endings directly: miattam, miattad, miatta, miattunk.^[5][3] Regional speech keeps miá and mijá, as in az eső mijá “because of the rain” in Csűry's Szamoshát material.^[10][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 916
4. ^ a b Szinnyei, József (1893–1901), Magyar tájszótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Hornyánszky
5. ^ a b c d Czuczor, Gergely; Fogarasi, János (1862–1874), A magyar nyelv szótára, 6 vols., Pest: Emich Gusztáv / Athenaeum
6. ^ a b Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
7. ^ a b c Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 917
8. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Szabó T., Attila (ed.) (1975–2014), Erdélyi magyar szótörténeti tár, 14 vols., Bukarest: Kriterion / Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó / Kolozsvár: Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület, p. 9, 208
10. ^ Csűry, Bálint (1935–1936), Szamosháti szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság, p. 2, 128