mely

• melly (dialectal or archaic)

Lexicalization of më-, a variant stem of mi (“what?”) +‎ -l (> ly, ablative case suffix).^[1]

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• Hyphenation: mely
• Rhymes: -ɛj

mely

1. (interrogative, literary) which

   Synonym: melyik

   • 1847, Sándor Petőfi, A Tisza (The Tisza), translated by Watson Kirkconnell:

     Oh természet, oh dicső természet! / Mely nyelv merne versenyezni véled?

     O Nature, glorious Nature, who would dare / with reckless tongue to match your wondrous fare?

     (literally, “…which language would dare to rival with you?”)

   Mely kérdésekre tudtad a választ? ― To which questions did you know the answers?

2. (relative, literary or archaic) which

   Synonyms: amely, amelyik

   • 2017, Gyula Kollát (ed.), Spanyol tájakon 6. – Galícia (“On Spanish Lands #6: Galicia”), Szép Világunk magazin:

     A tartomány fővárosa Santiago de Compostela, mely név hallatán legtöbbünknek a híres zarándokút, az El Camino ugrik be.

     The capital of the province is Santiago de Compostela, on hearing which name the famous pilgrimage route El Camino will come to mind for most of us.

3. (exclamatory, archaic, rare) what, how

   Synonyms: milyen, mennyire

   • 1796, Mihály Csokonai Vitéz, “Above Sleeping Lilla”, in Az alvó Lilla felett:

     Ah, mely édes ízzel / Alszik kincsem itt! –

     Ah, with what a sweet taste / My treasure is sleeping here! –

mely

1. (interrogative, now plural only) which

   Melyek az ország legnagyobb városai? ― Which are the biggest cities of the country?

2. (relative, literary) which, that

   Synonyms: amely, amelyik, ami

   • 1847, Sándor Petőfi, Egy gondolat bánt engemet… (“I’m Troubled by One Thought…”), translated by Ádám Makkai:

     Legyek fa, melyen villám fut keresztül, / Vagy melyet szélvész csavar ki tövestül;

     Let me be a tree, transfixed by lightning / torn up by storms from its roots’ deepest fastening—

     (literally, “…through which a lightning runs, / or which is torn up by a gale, root and branch”)

• Appendix:Hungarian words with ly

• mely in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN