Hungarian Historical Phonology hajt
hajt 'treiben, jagen; anreizen, anziehen, antreiben; (Maschine) treiben, bewegen, fahren'
First attestation/Old Hungarian data
[coming]
Important dialectal forms
No notable dialectal variation (ÚMTSz II: 805-806, s.v. hajt1)
Uralic/Ugric/Pre-Hungarian reconstruction
?*kaja-
UEW: ? PUg *kujɜ- (kajɜ-) 'chase, hunt, stalk, shoot; treiben, jagen'
Status of the Ugric etymology
Unclear
Loan etymology
None suggested so far
Cognates suggested in earlier research
UEW:
Mansi: East (KU) χujt- 'verführen, antreiben', West (P) kujt- 'манить', North (So) χujt- 'verführen, antreibe' < PMs *kujt-
Commentary
UEW lists the Ugric etymology as uncertain, giving to possible reconstructions. Hungarian hajt rather points to earlier *a or *o, but in the case of an old *a-a or *o-a -stem, one would expect long ū in Mansi. However, some examples of Mansi short u in Uralic *o-a -stems can be found: the following words appear in the word-list of Aikio (2015: 60–62): PU *śona ‘slegde’ > PMs *śun id., PU *kod’ka ‘spirit’ > PMs *kul’ id. and PU *kompa ‘wave’ > PMs *kump id.
It is also possible that the Hungarian and Mansi words are parallel loanwords from somewhere.
UEW mentions also the possibility that Hungarian hajt is related to hajol 'sich beugen'; in this case the connection with Mansi *kujt- should be rejected. Further research on the possible etymological connection is needd.
Conclusion
The Ugric etymology is not quite clear due to problems with vocalism.
References
UEW s.v. kujɜ- (kajɜ-): ? Proto-Ugric; Hu hajt possibly related to hajol-, hajl- Uralonet