Etymologically
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pénz

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Pronunciation

Forms

pénz (countable and uncountable, plural pénzek)[1] Old forms are penez and piniz; the dialects have péz, píz, péndz and pindz.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is a Slavic loanword.[2][5][6][1] Compare Serbo-Croatian penez (“coin, (plural) money”) and pinez in dialects, Slovak peniaz (“coin; money”) and the old Russian пе́нязь (pénjazʹ, “coin, small coin”).[2][5][6][1] TESz leaves the direct source open, and also whether the Slavic singular “coin” or plural “money” was borrowed.[2] Kniezsa derived it from South Slavic.[2][3]

The Slavic word was borrowed in the 8th century from an early form of German Pfennig: Old High German pfending and Old Saxon penning (“Frankish silver denarius”).[2][5][7] ÚESz and Zaicz trace the Germanic word to Latin pondus (“weight”).[5][6] Kluge thinks this the likeliest explanation but notes questions it leaves open.[5][6][7]

When the word was borrowed, the nasal vowel of the Slavic second syllable had already lost its nasality.[2][5] The oldest Hungarian forms, ⟨penez⟩ and ⟨piniz⟩, lost the vowel of their second syllable in the inflected forms, which gave the modern form.[2][5] The regional péz and píz arose later by loss of the nasal.[2][5] The regional penyáz is a separate, later loan from Slovak.[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A personal name Peneze of 1211 may be the first record.[2][5] In 1229 a Latin charter speaks of denarios, qui uocantur uothpenez, pennies called uothpenez, and in 1230 a charter has utpiniz “road money”; the sense is “money”.[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

“Coin” is recorded in the Jókai Codex, the name of a coin worth a hundredth of a forint at the end of the Middle Ages from 1511, and “fish scale”, a comparison with coins, from 1784.[2][5] The derivatives pénzes “moneyed” (a personal name in 1370, the adjective from 1525), pénzecske (1585), pénztelen “penniless” (1789, pénzetlen earlier) and pénzel “to finance” (1780) followed.[2][5] A Transylvanian saying of 1753, a pénznek nincsen szőre, “money has no hair”, means that no one can tell where money came from.[8]

The word passed into neighbouring languages: Romanian made pinzărie “mint” from it, and has samsarpenz “broker's fee” in Szatmár.[9][10] Some central Slovak dialects have penz, penc “money” from 1590, and Transcarpathian Ukrainian had пинзь “money” in the 18th century.[11][12]

Timeline

  • 1211 – Peneze, a personal name, uncertain.[2][5]
  • 1229 – uothpenez in a Latin charter.[2][5]
  • 1230 – utpiniz “road money”.[2]
  • 1370 – Penzes, a personal name, the first record of pénzes.[2]
  • after 1372 (copy of about 1448) – “coin” in the Jókai Codex.[2][5]
  • 1511 – the hundredth part of a forint.[2]
  • 1590 – Slovak penz “money” in Boca.[11]
  • 1780 – pénzel “to finance”.[2]
  • 1784 – “fish scale”.[2][5]
  • 1789 – pénztelen “penniless”.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. money: coins and banknotes used as a measure of value and a means of exchange: Nincs nálam pénz.[13][1]
  2. (economics) The commodity that serves as the general equivalent of all others.[13]
  3. A large sum; capital, wealth: Ez sok pénzbe kerül.[13]
  4. The smallest coin.[13]
  5. A fish scale.[13][14]

Word family

  • pénzes
  • pénzecske
  • pénztelen
  • pénzel
  • Slovak peniaz
  • German Pfennig

Usage notes

In Szeged speech the form is péz.[14] There pézt lát belüle means “he makes money out of it”, and ismerlek, mint a rossz pénzt “I know you like a bad coin” means “I know you well”.[14]

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 s t u v w Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 156
  3. ^ a b c Kniezsa, István (1955), A magyar nyelv szláv jövevényszavai I/1–2, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 414
  4. ^ Szinnyei, József (1893–1901), Magyar tájszótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Hornyánszky
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
  6. ^ a b c d Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
  7. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
  8. ^ Szabó T., Attila (ed.) (1975–2014), Erdélyi magyar szótörténeti tár, 14 vols., Bukarest: Kriterion / Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó / Kolozsvár: Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület, p. 10, 631
  9. ^ Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 615
  10. ^ Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 681
  11. ^ a b Gregor, Ferenc (2023), A szlovák nyelv magyar elemei, ed. András Zoltán, Budapest: Kairosz, p. 667
  12. ^ Lizanec, Petro N. (1976), Vengerskie zaimstvovanija v ukrainskih govorah Zakarpat'ja, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 616
  13. ^ 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
  14. ^ a b c Bálint, Sándor (1957), Szegedi szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 299