kérdjelezni

kérdjelezni is a Hungarian verb that historically denoted the act of asking for something in a courteous or deferential manner. The term is derived from the Hungarian noun kérdés ("question") combined with the suffix -ez, which forms verbs indicating repeated or habitual action, and the diminutive ending –l, giving a sense of politeness or modesty. The root noun itself comes from the Common Slavic *kérdét* meaning “reason” or “cause”, and entered Hungarian through early medieval contacts with Slavic peoples.

The verb was common in the 13th‑15th centuries, especially in courtly and religious contexts. It often appeared in medieval scribal collections of prayers and petitions, such as the royal charter “Decretum Kéthos” where subjects reportedly “kérdjelew” their sovereign for pardon or support. In these texts the word carried a nuanced meaning: not merely requesting but doing so with humility, acknowledging the power or authority of the addressee. The form remained in the Hungarian literary language until the 17th century, when more colloquial forms (kérdezek, kérdezni) became predominant.

In modern Hungarian the term is largely archaic, but it survives in literary descriptions of historical scenes and in some regional dialects, particularly in Transylvanian areas where older speech patterns are preserved. It still occasionally appears in scholarly works on historical linguistics and in philological studies of medieval Hungarian literature, where it is used to illustrate the evolution of politeness strategies in the language.