Since the introduction of Hungarian as the offi cial language of the Kingdom of Hungary (1844) the Hungarian parliament has offi cially been called Országgyűlés (in a common but not entirely correct English translation: “National Assembly”). In the “feudal” (estate) period, no such offi cial Hungarian name was in use, and even the Latin denominations changed over time, from the 13th up to the 19th century. The use of the word parliament (parlamentum) was rather exceptional, and appeared in the earliest sources only, while the words congregatio, conventio, comitia and diaeta became common, however none of them exclusive, and all of them frequently used with attributes, in possessive form or in the combinations thereof (as e.g. congregatio generalis, comitia regni or generalis diaeta regni). This study is intending to make an attempt to show the origin, emergence and development of these various Latin expressions, and, in the last part, to present the Hungarian variants as well, also highlighting the importance and criteria of a historical demarcation between the two Hungarian forms of the English expression “national assembly”, országgyűlés and nemzetgyűlés.

Keywords: diet, parliament, legislative assembly, estates, popular representation, history of parliamentarism, historical terms for parliaments