olmak

Meaning

(intransitive) to become, come to exist, come into being
to happen, occur, be, take place, befall
to be, to have or occupy a place or position, be located or situated at
to have, own
to pass, elapse, be
to suffice, be acceptable, be all right, be okay
to be possible, be apparently valid, be likely, be plausible
to ripen, mature; (for food) to be cooked, be done
(with-dative) to fit, suit
(with-ablative) to lose, be deprived of
to have, undergo something, to be afflicted with, suffer from, experience something negative, to catch a disease

Frequency

Hyphenated as

ol‧mak

Pronounced as (IPA)

[o̞ʷɫ̟ˈmɑk]

Etymology

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish اولمق (olmak, “to exist, be, become, happen, fit, ripen, mature”), from Old Anatolian Turkish [script needed] (ol-), [script needed] (bol-, “to become”), from Proto-Turkic *bōl- (“to become”). Now-obsolete bolmak was dominant until the end of the 16th century, and coexisted with olmak, which was attested quite early too. The relation between the two is unclear; according to Dybo, forms commencing with o- may very well represent a different root (see oturmak). On the other hand, the geographical distribution of this variant matches quite closely the change *b- > v- (see Turkish var (“there is”), or vermek (“to give”)) so it may indeed mirror the following change: *bol- > *vol- > ol-. But this change is not seen in b-l words in Turkish (e.g; bol, bal, bel, balık, bölmek, bilmek, bulmak, bilemek), which raises the possibility that the origin of the word is from *ol-.