HOTAR · HATÁR · TERMINUS

How did the boundary learn to decide?

Hotar comes from Hungarian határ — the stone and the line, documented since 1095. From it, Romanian made the verb hotărî: to bound, to delimit, to decide — a leap attested at every rung. And Latin walked the same road alone: terminus → determinare.

Draw the line

1095: “quod uulgo dicitur hotar”, at Pannonhalma
1646: “hotarul vecinului său”, in the Pravila
1779: Hungarians decide late: elhatároz

Three pictures, one line:

Stone, Terminus, Pannonhalma: three ways of seeing one line.

Line
Years
Cousins
Witnesses
The tally
Three dates
Dispute
Game
Sources

The page machine

The line, stone by stone

Seven stones, three languages. Press each piece: see which language it comes from and which dictionary holds it. The RO/LA/HU labels show the language; the stone is the line itself.

hotar today's Romanian RO

DEX '09: “– Din magh. határ” — line, stone, estate. (DEX)

hotărî the verb RO

DEX '09: “– Din hotar” — II old “a pune hotar”, I “a decide”. (DEX)

határ Hungarian HU

OklSz, p. 356: “1095: Itur ad signum quod uulgo dicitur hotar” — mound and line. (OklSz)

határoz to trace, Hungarian-style HU

ÚESz: “1519 k. hataroza 'határul kitűz… megállapít'” — to trace, to settle. (ÚESz)

hat to push forward HU

ÚESz: “Örökség az uráli korból” — kattɜ- “to press on, to go”. With a “probably”. (ÚESz)

terminus Latin LA

L&S: “a boundary-line, boundary, bound, limit” — the god and the line. (L&S)

determinare the twin LA

L&S: “to bound… II. Transf., to fix, settle, determine” — the same metaphor, another kin. (L&S)

hotter does NOT enter the machine: “germ. dial. hotter” is Scriban's outdated curiosity — it stands in the stamp, not on the thread.

At home

Ploughmen, chroniclers, surveyors: 1646–1776

The 17th century ploughs and writes — the Pravila punishes, the chroniclers border; from 1646, hotar flows: ploughmen, Silesias, Dacias, surveyors.

1646: the Pravila

Eustratie, “Pentru plugari”: “…să nu cumva îndrăznească a eși den hotarul său… căci au călcat hotarul altuia”. Gaster I, p. 119. (Pravila)

1645–1675: the chroniclers

Ureche: “hotarul cel bătrân lăsatu”. Costin: Silesia “se hotăresce cu dênșii acea țéră” — it borders. Kogălniceanu 1872, t. I, pp. 181, 253. (Chronicles)

1717–23: Cantemir

The Hronic: “după hotărârea a tuturor… gheografi iaste hotarul Dachiii” — hotărâre as boundary-fixing. Unpaginated transcription. (Cantemir)

Family: surveyors and waverers

hotarnic (1776, Uricariul); hotărnicie (Prav. Ipsilanti); hotăraș ← Hu. határos (DER); nehotărât (Budai-Deleanu); hotărît, old “delimitat”. (MDA2, DEX, DER)

Custom: beaten at the boundary

Zanne, VI, pp. 151–152: the young witnesses “eraŭ bătuți în lege chiar acolo”, villagers “se lovesc cu capetele” against the mark and curse its breakers. (Zanne)

An old surveying theodolite — A surveyor's theodolite: demarcation by measurement. Photo: Brahmavadini, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Pravila, 1646 (scan) →

The same line, other words

The other boundaries: graniță, frontieră, margine

Four words for the same line: Slavic gives graniță, French gives frontieră, Latin gives margine — and hotar is their elder brother.

The Slavic graniță

DEX: “Din bg., sb. granica”. DER: “Sl. granica” (Miklosich…). MDA2: first at Neculce; Moldavian variant “hra~”. (DEX, DER)

The French frontieră

DEX: “Din fr. frontière”, old var. fruntarie. MDA2: first at Maiorescu; CADE prints it asterisked. The hurried neologism. (DEX)

The Latin margine

DEX: “Lat. margo, -inis” — where a surface ends; the border sense is secondary, MDA2 marks it “(Îvp)”. The old inheritance. (DEX)

The double limită

DEX: “Din fr. limite, lat. limes” — a border only inside “limită teritorială”. MDA2: first at Barițiu. French + Latin, bundled. (DEX)

Portrait of Dimitrie Cantemir — Cantemir: hotărâre as boundary-fixing — before granițe. Photo: Rijksmuseum, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

DEX: graniță →

Who saw the line

Four witnesses

From DEX to OklSz and Scriban: four dictionaries, each seeing one stone.

DEX: hotar

“HOTÁR… 1. Linie de demarcație… ◊ Piatră de hotar… – Din magh. határ.”

The explanatory dictionary, s.v. hotar

The Romanian sheet: line, stone, estate. The most cited seal.

DER: the Slavic reservation

“Mag. határ… Nu este sigur că mag. a dat sl. chotarŭ… însă și cuvîntul rom. poate proveni din sl., cf. sb. atar “regiune”.”

Ciorănescu, DER, s.v. hotar

The etymological reservation: the Hungarian–Slavic direction, disputed. Shown, not hidden.

OklSz: 1095

“1095: Itur ad signum quod uulgo dicitur hotar (Pannh. 15/Oo)…”

OklSz, pp. 356–357

Hungarian with documents: mound and line, at Pannonhalma.

Scriban: the leap in one line

“Limitez, pun hotar. Fig. Decid, pronunț o sentență. Precizez, determin, fixez…”

Scriban, s.v. hotărăsc

The whole leap in one line: hotar → determination → decision.

ÚESz: határ (dictionary) →

Where we stand

What we know and what we reconstruct

Four drawers for the whole page: the line, the stars, why it holds, and what stays open.

What we know

hotar ← határ (DEX, MDA2, DER, ÚESz agree); hotărî ← hotar (DEX), with “cf határozni” (MDA2, DER); the leap attested at every rung, 1646–1776.

What we reconstruct

hat ← kattɜ- Uralic (ÚESz, “probably”); -ár with assumed morphological difficulties. Little starred, much documented.

Why it holds

ÉrtSz senses 1/4/6 overlap DEX 1/2/Trs.12; OklSz gives 1095; the Latin twin determinare walks the same road alone.

What stays open

hotărî ← hotar or cf határozni?; the Slavic reservation (DER vs ÚESz); the “decide” sense — first attested when?; any hotar before 1632.

Three stops

Three dates

The whole road on one line: the old stone, the ploughmen, the neighbours.

OklSz
1095
“Itur ad signum quod uulgo dicitur hotar” — the same spelling as today, in 1095.
stop at 1 of 3
Pravila
1646
“hotarul vecinului său” — ploughmen and boundaries, at Iași.
stop at 2 of 3
Costin
c. 1675
“se hotăresce cu dênșii acea țéră” — Silesia borders. (conventional date)
stop at 3 of 3

1776 hotarnic · 1779 elhatároz · 1796 határozat · Budai-Deleanu nehotărât · 1901 Zanne.

The road of the boundary

határ
the boundary, in Hungarian
hotar
the boundary, at home
hotărî
to decide

Where the line tangles

Three question marks, no winner

The line is solid — the derivations are not. The page verdict: DISPUTED

hotar + -î or cf határozni?

DEX: “Din hotar”. MDA2 and DER add “cf mg határozni”. Calque or clean derivation? The page follows DEX, with the “cf” in view.

Hungarian or Slavic?

DER: “…și cuvîntul rom. poate proveni din sl., cf. sb. atar”. ÚESz (newer): from Slovak “kevésbé valószínű”. The dispute leans Hungarian — the page shows both papers.

When did it first decide?

MDA2 dates the verb at Costin 1675 — but in the border sense, not the decision sense. The “decide” sense: first attestation unknown. The hole stays visible.

No disputed stone gets a single uncited truth on this page: the derivations stand side by side, the reservations stay visible, the missing datings confess.

What is NOT disputed: hotar ← határ; the hotar → hotărî leap; the Latin twin — on these all sources agree.

OklSz, pp. 356–357 (scan) →

Test yourself

Which is older?

Six landmarks from the page, shuffled. Set them from the oldest to the newest.

Move each card to its place, 1 to 6. Keys 1–6 move the chosen card; cards also drag by finger.

c. 1675
Costin: “se hotăresce cu Leșii”
Place
1095
OklSz: “quod uulgo dicitur hotar”
Place
1779
ÚESz: elhatároz “dönt”
Place
1646
Pravila: “hotarul vecinului său”
Place
1776
Uricariul: hotarnic
Place
1717–23
Cantemir: hotărârea Dachiii
Place

Score: 0 of 6

The right order, oldest first:

1095 — OklSz: “quod uulgo dicitur hotar”
1646 — Pravila: “hotarul vecinului său”
c. 1675 — Costin: “se hotăresce cu Leșii”
1717–23 — Cantemir: hotărârea Dachiii
1776 — Uricariul: hotarnic
1779 — ÚESz: elhatároz “dönt”

The settled row: 1095 OklSz, 1646 Pravila, c. 1675 Costin, 1717–23 Cantemir, 1776 hotarnic, 1779 elhatároz. Composition years are conventional.

Sources

First the Hungarian thread, then the Romanian years and the Latin twin; the neighbours last. Every risky claim points at its source.