Be'cs

[Ralph Cleminson]

On Tue, 28 Jan 1997  John Dingley wrote:
>
> Might someone shed light on the etymology of Be'cs, the name
> used for Vienna in several Central/South European countries?
> I had assumed that it was of Hungarian origin (meaning
> "a river bank"?), but I've also heard that it is originally a
> Turkish word.  (I would find the Turkish origin strange since,
> as far as I know, the Bulgarians use Viena).
>

Gombocz Z., Melich J., Magyar etymolo'giai szo'ta'r, Bp., 1914-30,
frankly admit that the etymology of this word is "obscure", but point
out that Be'cs is the name of a number of suburbs of various separate
Hungarian localities, hence Be'csorsza'g (i.e. Austria) =
"Borderland" (from a Hungarian point of view).  No clues on where the
word actually comes from, though.

Kiss Lajos, Fo"ldrajzi nevek etimolo'giai szo'ta'ra, Bp., 1988, gives
the first recorded use of Be'cs as 1356, but the best he can do for
an etymology is OHung be'cs "limekiln" from Russian pech' (via Turkic
to account for the p>b; work the chronology out for yourselves).  Why
this should be applied to Vienna is anyone's guess.  He doesn't
inspire confidence by suggesting similar origins for Pe'cs; since
this is Fu"nfkirchen or equivalent in various other languages, I
can't help thinking that a Slavonic numeral is at the bottom of it.
This doesn't help us with Vienna, though.

If anyone can dig up anything more convincing, let's hear it.

Sziaztok!
Ralph













~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
R.M.Cleminson, M.A., D.Phil.
Dept of Mediaeval Studies, Central European University
Post: H-1245 Budapest 5, P.O.B.1082
Phone: +361 327 3024   Fax: +361 327 3055
http://www.ceu.hu/medstud/ralph.htm