tud

Forms

tud (tudtam, tudott, tudjon; infinitive tudni)^[2] Contracted forms such as tom “I know it” (recorded in 1675) and tod “you know it” are common in speech and dialects.^[3][4][5] The infinitive tunni is old and regional.^[6][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Uralic *tumte- (“to feel, to know”), one of the words Hungarian inherited from the Uralic period.^{[3][7][8][9][10][1]} Its cognates are Komi-Zyrian te̮d-, Udmurt tod-, Finnish tuntea (“to feel, to know”) and Tundra Nenets tumtā-, with further reflexes in Sami and the other Samoyedic languages.^[8][3][7] Among the Komi forms, those with /i/ (such as tidal- (“to be visible”)) show the regular correspondence.^[3][10]

The cluster ⟨*mt⟩ between vowels became Hungarian /d/, as in lúd and vad.^[7][8][9] The original meaning was probably “to touch, to feel, to grope”, preserved in Finnish and Sami, from which “to know” developed;^[3][9][10] TESz and Zaicz compare ér (“to touch”) beside ért (“to understand”) and fog beside felfog (“to comprehend”).^[3][9][10] For the Permic words meaning both “to know” and “to be seen” TESz compares Latin videō (“to see”) beside German wissen (“to know”).^[3] TESz rejects a Turkic derivation.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A charter of 1138, known from a copy of 1329, has the personal name Tuda, which may contain the verb.^[3][8] The first sure record is the derivative thudothlon “ignorant” (tudatlan) in the Old Hungarian Lament of Mary: Volek syrolm thudothlon “I was ignorant of weeping”.^[3][10] The verb itself is first recorded in the Königsberg Fragment (tudyuc “they know”), in the sense “to know, to have knowledge of something”.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

EWUng and ÚESz derive the senses from a Proto-Hungarian “to know (someone or something)”, comparing German kennen beside können.^[7][8] TESz dates them as follows: “to know” about 1300; with an infinitive, “to be able, can”, and tudja / nem tudja “to be resolved / irresolute” in the Jókai Codex (copied about 1448); “to know someone”, tud valamihez “to be versed in”, “to be convinced”, “to suspect” and the biblical “to know (sexually)” in the Vienna Codex (about 1450); “to suppose, believe” in 1519.^[3] With preverbs the verb gained the senses “to count in, to charge” (be-, hozzá-, 1575), “to drive out” (ki-, el-, 1583) and “to deduct” (le-, 1811); “to speak (a language)” dates from 1717.^[3][8]

The derivatives are early: tudomány “knowledge”, later “science”, tudós and tudakozik in the Jókai Codex, tudás in the Vienna Codex, tudósít “to inform” in 1621, tudomás in 1643, tudálékos “pedantic” in 1789; the language reform added the noun tudat “consciousness” (1792), tudatos (1803) and tudor “doctor” (1836).^[3][8][9]

Dialects also use the verb like the suffix -hat, -het “may, can” and, of a person, “to have supernatural power, to know witchcraft”.^[11][12][5]

Timeline

• 1138 – Tuda, a personal name in a charter known from a copy of 1329, perhaps containing the verb.^[3][8]
• 13th century (c. 1300) – thudothlon “ignorant” in the Old Hungarian Lament of Mary.^[3][8]
• 13th–14th century – tudyuc “they know” in the Königsberg Fragment, dated about 1350 by TESz and to the early 13th century by ÚESz.^[3][8]
• c. 1448 – “can, be able” with an infinitive, and tudomány, tudós, tudakozik, in the Jókai Codex (copy of a text written after 1372).^[3][8]
• c. 1450 – tudás and the sense “to know someone” in the Vienna Codex.^[3][8]
• 1590 – tudós as a noun, “scholar”.^[3][8]
• 1621 – tudósít “to inform”, in Szenczi Molnár's dictionary.^[3][9]
• 1717 – “to speak (a language)”, in Mikes's letters.^[3]
• 1792 – the noun tudat “consciousness”.^[3][9]
• 1836 – tudor “doctor (academic)”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To know (a fact, a piece of information), from experience, report or study: Tudom, hol lakik.^[2][1]
2. To be sure that something will happen.^[2]
3. (folk, archaic) To think, to suppose.^[2][5]
4. To have learned and be able to use or recite (a text, a song, a skill, a language): Jól tud angolul.^[2][13]
5. (colloquial) To know (a person or a place) well enough to give information about it.^[2][1]
6. With an infinitive: can, to be able to: Tud úszni.^[2][1]
7. (rare) To count (a sum) in: the same as betud.^[2]

Word family

• tudakol
• tudálékos
• tudakozik
• tudakozódik
• tudás
• tudat
• tudatlan
• kitudódik
• tudomány
• tudomás
• tudós
• tudatos
• tudósít
• tudor
• megtud
• tudniillik

Related words

• Finnish tuntea

Usage notes

Sayings include nem jó mindent tudni “it is not good to know everything”.^[6][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
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 Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 995
4. ^ Szinnyei, József (1893–1901), Magyar tájszótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Hornyánszky, p. 2, 810
5. ^ a b c d Bálint, Sándor (1957), Szegedi szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 600
6. ^ a b Czuczor, Gergely; Fogarasi, János (1862–1874), A magyar nyelv szótára, 6 vols., Pest: Emich Gusztáv / Athenaeum
7. ^ a b c d Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1993–1997), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Ungarischen, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 1599
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
9. ^ a b c d e f g Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
10. ^ a b c d e Lakó, György (ed.) (1967–1978), A magyar szókészlet finnugor elemei, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 646
11. ^ B. Lőrinczy, Éva (ed.) (1979–2010), Új magyar tájszótár, 5 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 5, 482
12. ^ Csűry, Bálint (1935–1936), Szamosháti szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság, p. 2, 406
13. ^ a b Budenz, József (1873–1881), Magyar–ugor összehasonlító szótár, Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia