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után

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Pronunciation

Forms

után, with personal suffixes utánam, utánad, utána, utánunk.[2]

Etymology

It is from Hungarian út (“way, road”) + -a (“possessive suffix”) + -n (“locative suffix”): a noun with possessive and locative endings that became a postposition, originally meaning “on (someone's) way”.[3][4][5][6][1] The possessive suffix lost its force in frequent possessive constructions, and the meaning widened, as in részére and számára.[5][4][6] TESz rejects a Finno-Ugric comparison that separates the word from the noun.[3]

The noun is itself an old word of the Ugric, perhaps Uralic, period.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Jókai Codex, a copy of about 1448 of a text written after 1372: maſvtan, “after another”.[5][3] The sense is “after” in place, time or order.[3] The older, concrete use survives in the Vienna Codex (about 1450): mėǵfoꝛdolaſnac vtan, “on the way of the return, on the way back”.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

TESz describes the development: first the word marked following in space, then in time; the senses of cause, circumstance and manner grew from these.[3] It meant “on the basis of, as a result of” already in the Jókai Codex, “for” after verbs of longing and striving about 1456, “next in rank” in 1515, “towards” about 1525, “according to” in 1527, “behind” about 1560 and “because of” about 1560.[3][5] With personal suffixes it became an adverb, utánam, utána, in the Jókai Codex.[3][5]

As the first part of compounds, “after-, post-”, it is recorded from 1787 (utánidő “later time”); these compounds were made after German compounds in nach-, such as utánnyomat (1843) after German Nachdruck “reprint”.[3][5][6] The language reform derived utánoz “to imitate” (1815) and utánzat “imitation” (1823).[5][6]

In many dialects it means “for, to fetch”, as when one sends for the doctor, and in some “by means of, thanks to”.[7][8][9][10] Dialect forms include utáng, otán and utá.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1448 – maſvtan “after another” in the Jókai Codex (copy of a text written after 1372).[5][3]
  • c. 1456 – “for (longing, striving)” in the Sermones Dominicales.[3]
  • 1515 – “next in rank”.[3][5]
  • 1516 – votan in the Gömöry Codex.[3][5]
  • 1527 – “according to” in the Érdy Codex.[3][5]
  • c. 1560 – “behind” and “because of”.[3][5]
  • 1585 – the adjective utáni in Calepinus's dictionary.[3][5]
  • 1787 – utánidő, the first compound with után-.[5][3]
  • 1815 – utánnazás, the first record of the verb family of utánoz.[3][5]
  • 1823 – utánazat, later utánzat.[3][5]
  • 1843 – utánnyomat “reprint”.[5][6]

Meanings

Postposition

  1. after, behind: following someone or something in space: A kutya a gazdája után futott.[11][1]
  2. After, in pursuit of: following someone to catch up with them, or reaching for something to take it.[11]
  3. In the direction of someone or something going away: Sokáig nézett a vonat után.[11]
  4. Following in order: egymás után “one after another”.[11]
  5. After (in time): following a moment, event or state: Vacsora után sétálni mentünk.[11][1]
  6. After someone's work or death; inherited or taken over from them.[11]
  7. After a stated time from now; in.[11]
  8. On the basis of income, a payment or an achievement: A jövedelme után adót fizet.[11]
  9. (dialectal) For, to fetch.[8][7]

Word family

  • utána
  • utáni
  • utánoz
  • utánzat
  • út

Usage notes

With personal suffixes it serves as an adverb: utánam “after me”, utána “after him, her; afterwards”; older and dialect speech doubles the n: utánnam, utánna.[2][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Czuczor, Gergely; Fogarasi, János (1862–1874), A magyar nyelv szótára, 6 vols., Pest: Emich Gusztáv / Athenaeum
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 1039
  4. ^ a b Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1993–1997), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Ungarischen, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 1622
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
  6. ^ a b c d e f Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
  7. ^ a b Szinnyei, József (1893–1901), Magyar tájszótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Hornyánszky, p. 2, 860
  8. ^ a b B. Lőrinczy, Éva (ed.) (1979–2010), Új magyar tájszótár, 5 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó
  9. ^ Csűry, Bálint (1935–1936), Szamosháti szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság, p. 2, 424
  10. ^ a b Bálint, Sándor (1957), Szegedi szótár, 2 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 623
  11. ^ 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