Explanations of idioms around kemence ‘oven’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18349/MagyarNyelv.2024.1.71Keywords:
idioms, idiom explanation, historical phraseologyAbstract
The study presents a number of sayings and proverbs with the component furnace. One of its main aims is to prove that O. Nagy's proverb in the form of megesküdt a kemencesuttonnyal [ʼmarrying the furnace-cornerʼ] is most likely based on a mistake, the correct form is rather megesküdt a kemence a suttonnyal [ʼthe furnace marrying the corner]. Consequently, the meaning of the expression is neither ʼsitting home, hang aroundʼ, but ʼ<people who are joined together> enter into an allianceʼ. The source of the alliance may be similar material situation, similar nature, and the alliance may be a marriage between a man and a woman, but it may also be a union for the attainment of a goal, or a friendship. – The further part of the essay will discuss the origins of the idioms sutba vág/dob [ʼthrow/cast awayʼ] and the now extinct idioms ártatlan, mint a pemet a kemencétől [ʼinnocent as the broom from the ovenʼ] and ártatlan, mint a kerék a kemencétől [ʼinnocent as the wheel from the ovenʼ], and argue that the two noun components of the idiom Kemence (nem) Velence [ʼKemence (isnʼtʼ) Veniceʼ] may be proper nouns, as O. Nagy thinks, but it cannot be excluded that both components may have been common nouns originally.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Tamás Forgács
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