tört

Tört is a Hungarian adjective and past participle derived from the verb törni, meaning to break. In everyday language it describes something that has been broken, cracked, crushed, or mashed. The word is commonly used for both physical damage and for describing altered textures in food.

In culinary usage, tör is especially productive because it conveys a specific texture. For example, tör burgonya refers to mashed or crushed potatoes, while tör kenyér can describe crumbled or broken bread used as crumbs in dishes. In general prose, tör can describe objects that have lost their original integrity, such as tör üveg for shattered glass or a tör pendrive if the case has been damaged.

Grammatically, tör is typically used as an attributive adjective before a noun, with the sense that the noun is already in a broken or crushed state. It can also function predicatively in sentences like Az üveg tört, meaning “The glass is broken.” The form is closely connected to other related words such as törés (a break, fracture) and összetört, another common adjective meaning cracked or broken, which emphasizes continuity from the root meaning breakage.

Origins and scope: tör is rooted in the common Hungarian verb törni and has broad applicability across contexts where damage or altered texture is being described. While primarily a Hungarian word, its recognition is limited outside Hungarian-speaking communities, where it may appear only in borrowed or translated contexts.

Overall, tör is a concise term that communicates a state of being broken or crushed, with particular usefulness in describing culinary textures and damaged objects.