Felölel

Felölel is a Hungarian verb meaning to wrap one’s arms around someone or something, i.e., to embrace or enclose by an arm’s reach. The word combines fel-, a prefix indicating completion or surrounding, with ölel, meaning to hug. The sense includes both literal physical embrace and figurative wrapping or encompassing.

Usage: It is transitive and used with a direct object: “A férfi felölelte a nőt” (The man hugged the woman). The prefix fel- is a separable prefix in Hungarian; in different tenses the form may appear as felölel, felöleli, felölelte, etc.

Nuances: Felölel implies a complete, surrounding hold, as opposed to a simple hug “ölel.” In figurative use, it can describe something that envelops or encompasses a larger area or concept, e.g., “a város felöleli a környéket” (the city encompasses the surrounding area).

See also: ölelés, átölel, körülölel.