 | The topic of this article may not meet Misplaced Pages's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "Tótok" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | This article has an unclear citation style. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation and footnoting. (August 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Tót (plural: Tótok) (sometimes archaic spelling: Tóth or Tóthok) was the former exonym of the collective name for Slovaks, Slavonians and Slovenes, as the Hungarians called them. For example: The old Hungarian name for Slavonia was Tótország (Land of the Tóts/Tóths) until the end of the 19th century.
The original meaning of the word was the umbrella term of Slavic-speaking peoples following Western Christian religions living throughout the territory of Hungary until the beginning of the 20th century (including the few Czech and Polish populations living in historical Hungary). In today’s Hungary, mainly Catholic Tótok speaking South Slavic languages live in the areas west from the Danube (Transdanubia), while Tótok of Slovak origin with Catholic or Lutheran religion live in the areas east of the Danube. Several Hungarian settlements preserve the name Tót. These include Tahitótfalu (originally Tahi and Tótfalu separately), Tótkomlós, Tótszentgyörgy, Tótszentmárton, Tótszerdahely, Tótújfalu and Tótvázsony, Lengyeltóti and Káptalantóti. The surname Tóth is third on the list of most common Hungarian surnames.
From the beginning of the 20th century, the term “Tót” was pushed into the background in official documents, and the word that previously included several different Western Christian Slavonic ethnic groups was limited to Slovaks in common parlance.
References
- Magyar néprajzi lexikon. LINK:/
- Homepage of Hungarian Censuses A 2001-es népszámlálás oldala