The Church as a former possessor in Hungarian settlement names

Abstract

The Church as a former possessor in Hungarian settlement names  

The Church, a significant power in medieval Europe, has exerted a long-lasting influence on Hungarian place nomenclature. The author argues that ecclesiastical settlement names of the era aptly reflect the changes the Church had implemented in geographical surroundings (by erecting buildings for religious use) and in contemporary proprietary rights (by becoming a landowner) in the country. Based on data collected from a widely acclaimed Hungarian etymological dictionary of toponyms (FNESz.4), the paper describes historical settlement names, several of which are still in use today, referring to the possession of a clergyman or of a religious order with respect to their first appearance, their lexical, morphological and syntactic features, their semantics, their changes, and their cultural and historical importance.