https://hun.proz.com/kudoz/hungarian-to-english/poetry-literature/2941262-estv%C3%A9ledtem.html?paging=y
Nov 19, 2008 22:20
16 yrs ago
magyar term

estvéledtem

Non-PRO FVA Not for points magyar - angol Művészet/irodalom Költészet és irodalom Esti Dal
Usually found online as part of the expression "Erdo mellett estvéledtem" but also found as "...hányszor ott nem estvéledtem..." (from KARIG SÁRA SARKÖVEZET Versek „Éltem akkor boldog volt...”)
I suspect it means "The evening caught me ...". but I can't find any form of "estvéledtem" in any online Hungarian Dictionary (or even my hard cover one).
My wife is from Hungary and doesn't know the word. Is it archaic or just specialized?

Discussion

Gyongyi Peter Jun 19, 2009:
Night came (upon me) It is archaic and can be found in poetry and old folk songs. It means 'it got dark' ie. night came. It also implies upon 'me', and something like 'I stayed somewhere so long/did something for so long' that the day turned into night.
Zsuzsa Berenyi Nov 19, 2008:
You're right And you are right about its meaning.
Zsuzsa Berenyi Nov 19, 2008:
Archaic It is definitely archaic.

Proposed translations

1 óra

night comed down to cover me

Maybe this one reflects the Hungarian archaism. Both expresses the guy left somewhere and the evening caught him there.
Something went wrong...
1 óra

Evening darkness overtook me

It is indeed an archaic form, and it is only encountered in poetry about 200-300 year old.
Basically if you take it completely apart and try to put it together in comprehensible English, that's the closest solution in my oppinion. But there can be various other ways of translating it.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 days (2008-11-24 11:08:37 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I am not an expert in analyzing archaic words, but here's my 2 cent:

Estvéledtem:
Est = Evening
Estvé = (Absorbing the Evening, changing into it)
Ledtem = Archaic form of Lettem, which means transformed, came into
And véledtem (especially with the "T" before it) can refer to Tévedtem , which means disorientated, lose one's way.
Example sentence:

Near the woods evening darkness overtook me! -Folk-Song

How many times the evening darkness almost took me over! -Kisfaludy Sándor

Note from asker:
Not that I need to know, but I would be curious as to the etymology - the taking it completely apart - of estvéledtem as a Hungarian word.
Something went wrong...