hatan

hatan

1. romanization of 𐌷𐌰𐍄𐌰𐌽

hat +‎ -an (adverb-forming suffix)

• IPA^(key): [ˈhɒtɒn]
• Hyphenation: ha‧tan
• Rhymes: -ɒn

hatan (not comparable)

1. the six of us/you/them

   Hatan vagyunk a csoportban. ― There are six of us in the group. (literally, “We are of six…”)

   Az osztályunkban hatan vannak vegetáriánusok. ― There are six [of the] vegetarians in our class.

From Proto-West Germanic *haitan (“to command, name”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈxɑː.tɑn/, [ˈhɑː.tɑn]

hātan

1. to call, name
2. to order, command, give orders, bid
   • c. 897, inscription on the Alfred Jewel

     Ælfrēd mec hēht ġewyrċan.

     Alfred ordered me to be made.

   • late 10th century, Ælfric, "Saint George, Martyr"

     Hāt cuman tō mē þone cristenan mann...

     Tell the Christian man to come to me,...

   • late 10th century, Ælfric, "Saint Maur, Abbot"

     ...and hēt hine warnian, ġif hē wolde libban, þæt hē nǣre on ðām mynstre nǣfre eft ġesewen...

     ...and gave orders to warn him, if he wished to live, that he should never be seen in the monastery again...

3. to promise
4. (passive voice) to be called
   • c. 970, Exeter Riddle 16

     Friġe hwæt iċ hātte

     Guess what I am called

   • c. 900, Nine Herbs Charm

     Una þū hāttest yldost wyrta

     Una you are called the eldest of the herbs

     Þis is sēo wyrt ðe wergulu hātte

     This is the herb which is called wergulu

   • c. 890, King Alfred's Translation of Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care

     On ðǣm bōcum ðe hātton Apocalypsin

     In the books called Apocalypse

   • c. 900, The Old English Boethius

     Sum consul Boētius wæs hāten'

     A certain consul who was called Boethius

   • c. 980', Ælfric's De Temporibus Anni

     Seo heofen & sǣ & eorðe sind ġehātene middanġeard

     The sky and sea and ground are called the Earth

• Uniquely among Old English verbs, in sense 4 hātan retains forms of the Proto-Germanic synthetic passive, functioning like German heißen, with which it is cognate. These are attested in the present singular as hātte for the first and third person, hāttest for the second person, and in the present plural as hātton. For the past tense, the usual strategies for expressing the passive were used: iċ wæs ġehāten, etc. The usual analytic passive is also attested for the present tense, and in some cases appears to be preferred.
• For introducing one's self by name in the first person, expressions like mīn nama is ("my name is") seem to be more common than iċ hātte or iċ eom ġehāten in prose texts. Using hātan in this sense is more common in poetry, as well as in some self-referential uses for objects, e.g. the ᚻᚱᛁᚾᚷᛁᚳᚻᚪᛏᛏᚫ (hring ic hattæ, literally "I am called ring") inscription on the Wheatley Hill finger-ring. It may be that using hātan when introducing one's self may have been an archaism by the literate Old English period, although the fact that first- and second-person verbs are somewhat underrepresented in the prose corpus (due to the types of texts that have survived) cannot be ignored. Regardless, it was very commonly used for naming people in the third-person, and some first-person prose uses are attested as late as the Middle English period.

• Middle English: hoten, hoaten, haten
  • English: hote, hight
  • Scots: hate, hait

• Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller (1898) “hatan”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.