Name of Hungary
Encyclopedia
The name is thought to be a latinization of Hungari, Ungari, Ungri, Ugri (medieval Greek
Medieval Greek
Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, is the stage of the Greek language between the beginning of the Middle Ages around 600 and the Ottoman conquest of the city of Constantinople in 1453. The latter date marked the end of the Middle Ages in Southeast Europe...
Οὔγγροι) which was the name given by Byzantine writers to the Hungarians (who call themselves Magyars), and by early Russian writers to an Uralic people dwelling east of the Ural Mountains
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
, along the natural borders of Europe and Asia, corresponding to the prehistoric homeland of the Hungarians before their migration to Europe.
The Old Russian term Yugra
Yugra
Yugra was the name of the lands between the Pechora River and Northern Urals in the Russian annals of the 12th–17th centuries, as well as the name of the Khanty and partly Mansi tribes inhabiting these territories, later known as VogulsThe Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug of Russia is also...
(Югра) does not contain a nasal. The nasal in the Greek and Latin forms may be influenced by Onogur
Onogurs
The Onogurs, also known as Utigurs, were a horde of equestrian nomads in the North Eurasian steppe east of the Don River during the 5th to 8th centuries. The Onogurs crossed the Volga and entered into Europe around the year 460 within the larger context of the Great Migrations and the Turkic...
, the collective name of the horde
Orda (organization)
An orda or horde was an historical sociopolitical and military structure found on the Eurasian Steppe, usually associated with the Mongols. This entity can be seen as regional equivalent of a clan or a tribe...
of which the early Magyars formed part prior to the 9th century.
Name of the Hungarians
The Hungarian endonym is magyar, from Old Hungarian mogyër.This is from an old tribal name Mëgyër, cognate with the name of the Mansi.
The first element is likely from a Proto-Uralic *mańć- "man, person", also found in the name of the Mansi (mäńćī, mańśi, måńś).
The element -ër (meaning "man, men") is related with Hungarian úr "lord, husband", and outside of Ugric cognate with Finnish yrkö "man". According to others the term of Magyar derived from the name of (prince) Muageris.
The exonym Ungri, Ugri was applied to the people later known as Voguls, dwelling east of the Ob River
Ob River
The Ob River , also Obi, is a major river in western Siberia, Russia and is the world's seventh longest river. It is the westernmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean .The Gulf of Ob is the world's longest estuary.-Names:The Ob is known to the Khanty people as the...
on the edge of the sphere of influence of 16th-century Muscovy. The name Yugra
Yugra
Yugra was the name of the lands between the Pechora River and Northern Urals in the Russian annals of the 12th–17th centuries, as well as the name of the Khanty and partly Mansi tribes inhabiting these territories, later known as VogulsThe Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug of Russia is also...
(or Iuhra) was applied to that territory from about the 12th century.
The Latin name Ungarii, applied to the Magyars even in the 10th century by Widukind of Corvey
Widukind of Corvey
Widukind of Corvey was a Saxon historical chronicler, named after the Saxon duke and national hero Widukind who had battled Charlemagne. Widukind the chronicler was born in 925 and died after 973 at the Benedictine abbey of Corvey in East Westphalia...
in his Res gestae saxonicae
Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres
The three-volume Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres is a chronicle of 10th century Germany written by Widukind of Corvey...
, is again separate from (but perhaps influenced by) Ugri. The (h)ungar- continues a Bulgar-Turkic On-Ogur
Onogurs
The Onogurs, also known as Utigurs, were a horde of equestrian nomads in the North Eurasian steppe east of the Don River during the 5th to 8th centuries. The Onogurs crossed the Volga and entered into Europe around the year 460 within the larger context of the Great Migrations and the Turkic...
(meaning "ten [tribes of the] Ogurs"), which was the name of the Utigur
Utigur
Utigur is the name used by Procopius Caesariensis and his continuators Agathias and Menander in the 5th and 6th centuries to refer to the Bulgar-Huns of Onoguria, the Eurasian steppes north-east of the Black Sea and east the Don river....
Bulgar
Bulgars
The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....
tribal confederacy that ruled eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars
Eurasian Avars
The Eurasian Avars or Ancient Avars were a highly organized nomadic confederacy of mixed origins. They were ruled by a khagan, who was surrounded by a tight-knit entourage of nomad warriors, an organization characteristic of Turko-Mongol groups...
, and prior to the arrival of the Magyars. The Hungarians must have belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance and it is quite possible they became its ethnic majority.
The alternation of Ungaria and Hungaria in Middle Latin is trivial, addition of unetymological initial h- is a common phenomenon in Latin words beginning in a vowel.
Natio Hungarica
The Latin term Natio Hungarica ("Hungarian nation") in the medieval period referred to the members of the Hungarian Diet, viz. the Hungarian nobility, the Catholic clergy, and a limited number of enfranchised burghers.The same term cane to refer to the elite with corporate political rights of parliamentary representation, i.e. the prelates, the magnates and the nobles, in the early modern period. This conception was accepted in Szatmar Treaty
Treaty of Szatmár
The Treaty of Szatmár was signed at Szatmár on April 30, 1711 between Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, Hungarian Commander-in-Chief Sándor Károlyi and Imperial Field Marshal János Pálffy. Based on the terms of the accord, Charles promised to maintain the integrity of both Transylvanian and...
of 1711 and in the Pragmatic Sanction
Pragmatic sanction
A pragmatic sanction is a sovereign's solemn decree on a matter of primary importance and has the force of fundamental law. In the late history of the Holy Roman Empire it referred more specifically to an edict issued by the Emperor....
of 1722; it remained valid until 1848, when the Hungarian nobility was abolished, and began to acquire a sense of ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism is a form of nationalism wherein the "nation" is defined in terms of ethnicity. Whatever specific ethnicity is involved, ethnic nationalism always includes some element of descent from previous generations and the implied claim of ethnic essentialism, i.e...
.
Pannonia
In medieval Latin, the territory of the kingdom Hungary was still known as Pannonia, after the Roman province.The king of Hungary
King of Hungary
The King of Hungary was the head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 to 1918.The style of title "Apostolic King" was confirmed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 and used afterwards by all the Kings of Hungary, so after this date the kings are referred to as "Apostolic King of...
was also given the title of rex Pannoniae "king of Pannonia", or rex Pannonicorum "king of the Pannonians".
The name of Pannonia is named for the Pannonii (Παννόνιοι), a group of tribes inhabiting the Drava
Drava
Drava or Drave is a river in southern Central Europe, a tributary of the Danube. It sources in Toblach/Dobbiaco, Italy, and flows east through East Tirol and Carinthia in Austria, into Slovenia , and then southeast, passing through Croatia and forming most of the border between Croatia and...
basin in the 2nd century BC. They were presumably Illyrian tribes who had been Celticized during the 3rd century BC.
Julius Pokorny
Julius Pokorny
Julius Pokorny was an Austrian linguist and scholar of the Celtic languages, particularly Irish, and a supporter of Irish nationalism. He held academic posts in Austrian and German universities.-Life:...
suggested an Illyrian etymology for this name, derived from a PIE root *pen- "swamp, marsh" (cognate with English fen).
Modern era
The LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
(Regnum meaning kingdom); Regnum Marianum (Kingdom of St. Mary); or simply Hungaria was the form used in official Latin documents from the beginning of the kingdom to the 1840s (documents in Hungarian used the Magyarorszag term -used most by Protestant Transylvanian Princes in their correspondence and official documents during the period they controlled not only the Parts of Hungary but the Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
sometimes up to Pozsony, German ones the term Ungarn, Königreich Ungarn - many diplomas produced in German or mixed German - Latin for the towns/civitas' mostly established and resided by German speaking "Hungarians": Transylvanian Saxons
Transylvanian Saxons
The Transylvanian Saxons are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania from the 12th century onwards.The colonization of Transylvania by Germans was begun by King Géza II of Hungary . For decades, the main task of the German settlers was to defend the southeastern border of the...
, Zipsers, Hiänzs, etc. from the 14th century).
The German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
name () was used from 1849 to the 1860s, and the Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
name () was used in the 1840s, and again from the 1860s to 1918. The names in other languages of the kingdom were: , , , , , , Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
(for the city of Fiume), Regno d'Ungheria.
In Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
(1867–1918), the unofficial name Transleithania was sometimes used to denote the regions covered by the Kingdom of Hungary. Officially, the term Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen was included for the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, although this term was also in use prior to that time.
Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen
Within Austria-Hungary, the term "Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen" (HungarianHungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
: Szent István Koronájának Országai , German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Länder der heiligen ungarischen Stephanskrone) was used to denote Hungary proper together with its associated territories, including the Grand Principality of Transylvania, the Military Krajina (Militärgrenze) and Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...
.
Another term used synonymously was Archiregnum Hungaricum ("High Kingdom of Hungary").
Regnum Marianum
Regnum Marianum is an old CatholicCatholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
name of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. It means Kingdom (Country) of Mary. The name comes from the tradition that the first Hungarian king, Saint Stephen, dying without an heir, has offered the Holy Crown (the Hungarian crown) and the country to the Virgin Mary.
The name Regnum Marianum was often used for emphasizing a strong connection between Hungary and Catholicism. Some communities also use this name for themselves to express their intention to make their life worthy to Mary. The best known of these is the Regnum Marianum Community
Regnum Marianum Community
The Regnum Marianum Community is one of the Catholic movements in Hungary. Its name comes from the old Hungarian tradition of Regnum Marianum. The organization itself is mostly referred to as Regnum Marianum.- History of the Regnum Marianum Community :...
.
See also
- Transleithania
- Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen
- YugraYugraYugra was the name of the lands between the Pechora River and Northern Urals in the Russian annals of the 12th–17th centuries, as well as the name of the Khanty and partly Mansi tribes inhabiting these territories, later known as VogulsThe Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug of Russia is also...