bezzeg

Hungarian

FWOTD – 9 July 2019

Etymology

Lexicalized form of an unknown stem inflected with the voiced -g counterpart of an (obsolete) lative suffix -k for emphasis, compare leg- (“-est, the most”), archaic viszontag (“in return; likewise”) (whence present-day viszont) and dialectal szintég (“exactly that way; also; almost”). Its stem may be the same as that of the archaic adverb beze (“indeed, truly”), the latter formed with an (obsolete) lative suffix -e. Connection with bízik (“to trust”) is unlikely.^[1]^[2]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈbɛzːɛɡ]
Audio: (file)
Hyphenation: bez‧zeg
Rhymes: -ɛɡ

Adverb

bezzeg (not comparable)

sure enough, surely, needless to say, of course, there you go, you see, oh but… (expressing a reproachful or indignant attitude, expressing that something [i.e. an altered circumstance] creates (created or would create) a difference in the behavior or attitude of someone or the state of something)
Bezzeg ha én törtem volna el, akkor nem úsztam volna meg ilyen könnyen! ― Needless to say, had I broken it, I wouldn't have got away with it so easily! (implies that someone got less punishment for breaking something compared to what the speaker thinks (s)he would get himself/herself, and it is felt improper)

Bezzeg én sose mehetek veletek a boltba! ― But I can never go to the shop with you! / Why can't I ever go to the shop with you? (implying that someone else can, in fact, and this distinction is felt improper by the speaker)

Ő bezzeg nagyon ért hozzá! ― But he really is an expert in it, isn't he! (ironically)
- 1973, Ervin Lázár, A lyukas zokni [The Sock With a Hole], translated by Katalin N. Ullrich; in: A hétfejű tündér [’The Seven-Headed Fairy’] [1]
  – Ugyan – oktatta a zokni –, rajtam éppen az a szép, hogy nem vagyok átlátszó, s nézd meg a gyönyörűséges kék mintáimat! ¶ – És piszkos is vagy – folytatta a lyuk, fittyet hányva az oktatásra –, én bezzeg sohasem piszkolódom be.
  ’Oh, please,’ said the sock in an instructive manner, ’what’s beautiful about me is exactly that I’m not transparent, and look at all these wonderful, blue patterns here!’¶ ’And you’re dirty, too,’ added the hole paying no heed to the instruction, ’but I never ever get dirty.’
(regional) egad
Bezzeg akkorát esett az utcán, hogy alig tudott fölkelni! ― Egad, he fell so great on the street, he could barely get up on his feet!
- 1844, Sándor Petőfi, János vitéz [John the Valiant], translated by John Ridland^[2]
  Mikor ezt látta a gyáva török sereg, / Uccu! hátat fordít és futásnak ered, / Futott, futott s talán mostanság is futna, / Hogyha a huszárok el nem érték volna. // De bezzeg elérték, le is kaszabolták; / Hullottak a fejek előttök, mint a mák.
  When the timorous Turkish troops saw this, they wheeled, / And yelling, 'Retreat!' the men took to their heels, / And they ran and they ran and might be on the run / To this day, if the hussars had not chased them down. // But catch them they did, and they swept like a mower, / The heads fell before them, like poppies in flower.
(as a first element of a compound) an often mentioned exemplar or model (i.e. of whom/which it is often said Ő/Az bezzeg... - But (s)he/it...; maybe not with the word bezzeg but in this sense)
bezzeggyerek ― exemplary child (a child often brought up as an example for what other children should be or behave like)

bezzegország ― showcase country (a country often cited as a model for progress, efficiency, transparency, rule of law etc.)

bezzegszomszéd ― model neighbor (a neighbor behaving in a way that supposedly all neighbors should do)

bezzeganya ― ideal mother (a mother repeatedly referred to, possibly with envy or scorn, as a model for raising children properly)

Synonyms

(needless to say): persze, aztán
(egad): bizony
(model, exemplar, showcase: nouns and adjectives, without the overtone of envy or scorn):

Derived terms

bezzegezik

References

^ bezzeg in Károly Gerstner, editor, Új magyar etimológiai szótár (ÚESz.), Online edition (beta version), Budapest: MTA Research Institute for Linguistics / Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, 2011–2024.
^ bezzeg in Zaicz, Gábor (ed.). Etimológiai szótár: Magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete (’Dictionary of Etymology: The origin of Hungarian words and affixes’), Second, revised and expanded edition, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2021, →ISBN. (See also the PDF of its 1st edition.)