A Possible Slavic Etymology of Hungarian komor ‘gloomy’ and komoly ‘serious’
A Possible Slavic Etymology of Hungarian komor ‘gloomy’ and komoly ‘serious’

Summary/Abstract: The Hungarian words komor ‘gloomy’ and komoly ‘serious’ are of unknown origin. The present paper aims to elucidate this question from various angles: it gives an overview of what the Hungarian etymological dictionaries say on this topic, shows that komoly is a relatively late development out of komor, spread by the language reformers (especially by Ferenc Kazinczy) at the end of the 18th century, and presents the attempts to prove the Turkic origin of komor. Finally, it offers a Slavic etymology based on the Slavic stem *chmur-, demonstrates that semantically the two words match perfectly, and dissolves the phonological doubts that may arise at first sight.

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