Hungarian Historical Phonology hízik
hízik 'grow fat; fett werden'
First attestation/Old Hungarian data
[coming]
Important dialectal forms
[coming]
Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction
Disputed:
- koj-ta- < *kojV-ta- (see Pystynen, blog post)
UEW: *katɜ- ‘grow fat; fett werden‘
Status of the Ugric etymology
Possible
Loan etymology
None suggested so far
Cognates suggested in earlier research
UEW:
Khanty: East (Vj) katəm 'fett, korpulent', South (Kr) χottə- 'fett werden', North (Kaz) χɔtʌə- 'fett werden'
Mansi: South (T) kōt-, East (KU) χūt-, West (P) kūt-, North (So) χūt- 'fett werden'
Commentary
The Ugric etymology seems possible, although the origin of Hungarian í is not completely clear. The Khanty and Mansi words could point to an old *a-a or *o-a stem, but as EWUng remarks, Hu í could point to earlier Hu *ï (< PU *e̮). However, PU *oj is reflected by Hungarian í in conditions: Hu hím 'male' < PU *kojma is a good example of this. It has been suggested in earlier research (see Bárczi 1943: 123, s.v. hízik) that Hu hízik is a derivative of the PU word for 'fat', reflected by Hu háj (the PU word is reconstructed as *kuje in the UEW, but Zhivlov 2014: 137 reconstructs *koja). UEW rejects this idea, but this explanation is possible, if we assume Hu í from PU *oj (in closed syllables) is regular (this possiblity has been discussed by Pystynen in a blog post). However, some details require further research: in hím we are dealing with a Uralic -ə-stem, and this stem vowel regularly drops before suffixes beginning with a consonants (*kojma < *kojə, *kojra < *kojə), but PU *koja 'fat' was (probably) an a-stem. It is possible that in a derivative like (?) *koja-ta- the a in the middle of the word was lost, producing *kojta, which then developed regularly to híz-.
If the predecessor of hízik is reconstructed as *koj(V)-ta-, the Khanty and Mansi vocalism also fit here (if we assume the loss of *j is regular).
Conclusion
The Proto-Ugric etymology seems possible, but some phonological details require further research.
References
Bárczi 1943: 123, s.v. hízik: a possible PUg derivative, connected to háj 'fat, tallow'
EWUng: 565, s.v. hízik: PUg
Pystynen blog post 5.9.2024: PUg
UEW s.v. katɜ-: PUg Uralonet