három (Hungarian)
Where does "három" come from?
The Hungarian word "három" traces its origins back to the Proto-Finno-Ugric root "*kolme," which also serves as the ancestor for numerals in Finnish, Estonian, and other Uralic languages. Over centuries of linguistic evolution within the Finno-Ugric branch, the word retained its core meaning of "three" while undergoing distinct phonetic changes across different regional dialects.
Full etymology tree
- három (Hungarian), 'three'
- inherited *kolme (Proto-Finno-Ugric)
Cognates and doublets
- kolm (Estonian)
- kolme (Finnish)
- хәԯум (Northern Khanty)
- хӯрум (Northern Mansi)
Descendants and derived words
- hárman (Hungarian)
- harminchárom (Hungarian)
- háromdimenziós (Hungarian)
- hároméves (Hungarian)
- háromfejű (Hungarian)
- háromfelé (Hungarian)
- háromféle (Hungarian)
- háromfokozatú (Hungarian)
- háromnegyed (Hungarian)
- háromszáz (Hungarian)
- háromszög (Hungarian)
- háromszögletű (Hungarian)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris