perc

Forms

perc (plural percek)^[1] The vowel is pronounced open or closed, perc or përc; old and dialect spellings include pörc, percz and pírc.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from the nouns ⟨percegés⟩, ⟨percenés⟩ and ⟨percentés⟩, derived from the verbs percen, perceg and percent, which imitate a faint ticking or crackling.^[5][3][6][1] The nouns were used of the ticking of a clock and of the short moment between two ticks, and the back-formation dates from about the same time as this use.^[5][6] Horger held that the verbs were originally ⟨peccen⟩, ⟨peccent⟩, with a later ⟨r⟩, and that the back-formation was probably made in popular speech.^[7] TESz considers a back-formation from the compound ⟨időperc⟩ unlikely and an Iranian derivation wrong.^[5] The variant ⟨ujjperec⟩ “finger joint” was influenced by perec.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is in a folk text written down after 1742 and printed in Kriza's collection Vadrózsák of 1863: Egy pörczig se mulassatok, “don't tarry a minute”.^[8][3] The sense is “minute, a very short time”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From the time of the language reform perc pushed out the words used until then for “minute”, minuta (from 1559) and minutum (from 1743).^[5][6] In Szeged the old people still said minuta or minutom.^[9] Horger quotes the 18th-century Faludi for the older noun: he heard every percenés of his hanging watch at night.^[7]

The other senses are transfers from time to space: “joint of a finger; joint of a stalk” (1749), “a little bit (of the body)” (1760–87), “a small unit of length” (1788–9), “a sixtieth of a degree” (1812), and “spark” (1861).^[5][3] The sense of the degree was helped by the division of the degree into sixty parts, as of the hour.^[5] The finger joint and the “little bit” survive in dialects.^[10]

The word passed into the Romanian dialects of western and northwestern Transylvania in the sense “instant”.^[11]

Timeline

• After 1742 – pörczig “to a minute” in a folk text printed in 1863.^[8][3]
• 1749 – percznyi “a joint long”, the first record of the derivative percnyi.^[8]
• 1760–87 – “little bit (of the body)”.^[8]
• 1786 – az utolsó pertzig “to the last minute”.^[8]
• 1788–9 – “a small unit of length”.^[8]
• 1812 – “minute of a degree” in Keresztesi's mathematics.^[8]
• 1861 – “spark”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A minute: the sixtieth part of an hour, sixty seconds.^[2][1]
2. A very short time, a moment: Egy percre se hagyd magára!^[2][12]
3. (geometry) A minute of arc, the sixtieth part of a degree.^[5][1]
4. (dialectal) A joint of a finger.^[10][1]

Word family

• percenként
• perces
• percnyi
• másodperc

Related words

• percen
• perceg

Usage notes

ebben a percben “this minute, right now” and azon percben “at that very moment” are recorded in 19th-century Transylvanian letters.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
4. ^ Csűry, Bálint (1935–1936), Szamosháti szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó
6. ^ a b c Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
7. ^ a b Horger, Antal (1924), Magyar szavak története: közérdekű magyar szófejtések gyűjteménye, Budapest: Kókai
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 159
9. ^ Bálint, Sándor (1957), Szegedi szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó
10. ^ a b B. Lőrinczy, Éva (ed.) (1979–2010), Új magyar tájszótár, 5 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 4, 442
11. ^ Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 607
12. ^ Szabó T., Attila (ed.) (1975–2014), Erdélyi magyar szótörténeti tár, 14 vols., Bukarest: Kriterion / Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó / Kolozsvár: Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület
13. ^ Szabó T., Attila (ed.) (1975–2014), Erdélyi magyar szótörténeti tár, 14 vols., Bukarest: Kriterion / Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó / Kolozsvár: Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület, p. 10, 663