olmak

Turkish

Etymology

From Ottoman Turkish اولمق (olmak, “to exist, be, become, happen, fit, ripen, mature”), from Old Anatolian Turkish (ol-), (bol-, “to become”), from Proto-Turkic *bōl- (“to become”). Now-obsolete bolmak was dominant until the end of the 16th century, and coexisted with olmak, which was attested quite early too. The relation between the two is unclear; according to Dybo, forms commencing with o- may very well represent a different root (see oturmak). On the other hand, the geographical distribution of this variant matches quite closely the change *b- > v- (see Turkish var (“there is”), or vermek (“to give”)) so it may indeed mirror the following change: *bol- > *vol- > ol-. But this change is not seen in b-l words in Turkish (e.g; bol, bal, bel, balık, bölmek, bilmek, bulmak, bilemek), which raises the possibility that the origin of the word is from *ol-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: ol‧mak

Verb

olmak (third-person singular simple present olur)

1. (intransitive) to become, come to exist, come into being
2. to happen, occur, be, take place, befall
3. to be, to have or occupy a place or position, be located or situated at
4. (with possessive marker on object) to have, own
5. (of time) to pass, elapse, be
6. to suffice, be acceptable, be all right, be okay
7. to be possible, be apparently valid, be likely, be plausible
8. to ripen, mature; (for food) to be cooked, be done
9. (+ dative, of clothes) to fit, suit

   Synonym: yakışmak

10. (+ ablative) to lose, be deprived of
11. to have, undergo something, to be afflicted with, suffer from, experience something negative, to catch a disease

    Sigara içerek ancak kanser olursun.

    The only thing you'll get out of smoking is cancer.

Conjugation

Derived terms

References

Further reading

• olmak in Reverso (Turkish-English)