Hungarian

How to spell hungarian

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce hungarian

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hungarian mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to Hungary, its people, language, or culture.
2. nounA native or inhabitant of Hungary.
3. nounThe official language of Hungary, part of the Finno-Ugric family.

Hungarian in a sentence

• adjective

  The restaurant serves a rich hungarian goulash with paprika.

• noun

  As a proud hungarian, he flew the national flag on independence day.

• noun

  He spent a year learning hungarian before moving to Budapest for work.

• adjective

  She studied hungarian folk music at the conservatory in Budapest.

• noun

  Every hungarian at the conference spoke warmly about their homeland.

• noun

  The form was printed in both English and hungarian for local residents.

Where does hungarian come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the country name Hungary, which in Medieval Latin was Hungaria, and ultimately traces back to the Hungari or Ungri, the name by which outsiders knew the Magyar people who settled the Carpathian Basin in the ninth century. That name is widely believed to derive from a Turkic expression, on-ogur, meaning roughly 'ten arrows' or 'ten tribes', describing a confederation of peoples; despite the spelling, it has no genuine connection to the Huns, though the resemblance encouraged the silent or shifting letters along the way. English took the adjective by adding the familiar Latin suffix -ian, which means 'belonging to' and turns place names into words for their people, languages, and qualities, just as in 'Italian' and 'Canadian'. The word arrived in English in the sixteenth century and has stayed remarkably stable in spelling since. Note that the Hungarians call themselves Magyar and their country Magyarorszag, so 'Hungarian' is the external name English inherited rather than the native one. The spelling trap is the central -gar-, an unstressed syllable that sounds like a vague 'guh' and tempts writers toward 'Hungrian' or 'Hungarion'.

How the word is built

• Hungar- (from Hungary, the country)
• -ian (adjective/noun suffix meaning 'belonging to')