alig-alig

Cebuano

Verb

alig-alig (Badlit spelling ᜀᜎᜒᜄ᜔ᜀᜎᜒᜄ᜔)

1. to do something which is not one’s ordinary duty, to take something on oneself.

   Nganong gialig-aligan man na nimog taod nga wa pa man mahuman og pintal?

   Why did you go and put it up when we hadn’t finished painting it?

2. to undertake a task which one is not up to doing

   Bisag di kamao modrayb, moalig-alig na siyag maneho.

   He doesn’t know how to drive, but he takes it on himself to do so.

Hungarian

Etymology

From alig (“barely”) +‎ alig (“barely”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɒliɡɒliɡ]
• Rhymes: -iɡ
• Hyphenation: alig-alig
• Syllabification: a‧lig-a‧lig

Adverb

alig-alig

1. barely, hardly, scarcely (to a limited extent)

   Alig-alig látok. ― I can barely see.

2. with difficulty

   A két jelenséget alig-alig lehet megkülönböztetni. ― It's very hard to distinguish the two kinds of phenomena.

3. barely (to emphasize the smallness of the named quantity or measure)

   Itt van mellettem, alig-alig egy méterre tőlem. ― It is right next to me, barely a meter from me.

Further reading

• alig-alig in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.
• alig-alig in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2024).