Talk:List of English words of Polish origin

Old discussions
I came upon this word accidently, but it seems that it has Polish origins, even if the English word may be rarely used:

britzka, britska--large carriage with folding top: a horse-drawn carriage with a rear-facing front seat and a folding top over the back seat http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861592793/britzka.html

My computer's Webster's New World Dictionary and Thesaurus says, "a long, spacious carriage with a folding top" Etymology: "Pol bryczka, dim. of bryka, freight wagon"

I suggest merging this list and List of English words of Russian origin into one new article List of English words of Slavic origin. The two lists have too much in common and I fear a war about "is this or that word Polish or Russian?" when they're in fact Slavic. Kpalion 22:43, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Agree, Kpalion. A good idea and helps elusive Slavic unity cause:). Anyway, spruce is listed as Polish origin word. In fact the word has relation to Prussia but is not Polish but was adopted from French. So it is really a French origin word. Second point is that spruce is not "a kind of wood" but fir. Berschneider.

Please move this back. Moving this is a bad idea, especially as we already have a List of English words of Russian origin. This looks like more anti-Polish agitation. If there is debate about a word use a good etymological dictionary. Rmhermen 00:53, Apr 27, 2004 (UTC)
 * 1- Seconded.
 * 2- It looks like anti_slavic propaganda, too. Why not bundle a bunch into "List of English words of Romance origin"?
 * 3- Contra. A good etymologic dictionary would probably say that all words are from latin or greek :-). Besides, it is fairly natural that some word could have come into English wia several routes, so it is pretty normal to have the same word both of, say, Latin, and Etruscan origin. Mikkalai 01:23, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)
 * Many Slavic words were imported into (American) English via Yiddish which is a mixture of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic languages. To be honest, I doubt if such lists make any sense at all. --Kpalion 00:09, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Vodka Debate
So, did "vodka" enter English from Polish or Russian? Who has more evidence for their case. Alexander 007 03:36, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)


 * Probably Russian. "Vodka" is an exact transliteration of the Russian "&#1074;&#1086;&#1076;&#1082;&#1072;". In Polish it is spelled "wódka" (with a W), and pronounced ['vutka] (not ['vodka]). – Kpalion (talk) 10:13, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Actually, if you consult any English dictionary (e.g. this, this and this one), you'll see that it came to English from Russian. So I'm removing vodka from here. – Kpalion (talk) 03:16, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Mead from Old English
Mead is listed as bein g of Polish origin, however this is incorrect.

Main Entry: 1mead Pronunciation: 'mEd Function: noun Etymology: Middle English mede, from Old English medu; akin to Old High German metu mead, Greek methy wine
 * a fermented beverage made of water and honey, malt, and yeast

jim62sch@aol.com

I would have to agree that the word 'mead' does not come into English directly from Polish. I believe that it comes from a common Proto-Indo-European root word, probably meaning 'honey'. Mead is by definition made from honey, and the word for honey is some variation of mead in most Slavic languages ('miód' in Polish, 'med' in Russian, and so on). It is also closely related phonetically in other non-Slavic languages from the Northern European area (Baltic languages, Scandinavian languages,see http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mead). It's also quite delicious.

Highlandschoolofforeignlanguages (talk) 18:49, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Capitalized
I have capitalized each word as per the general convention in a dictionary entry. --Bhadani 12:52, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

New version of the list
I rewrote the entire list. Here's what I did: The lead still needs to be expanded. &mdash; Kpalion(talk) 22:30, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Changed a list to a table with four columns: word, meaning, etymology and references.
 * Added references which the article lacked completely so far. Almost all refs are to three online dictionaries: Online Etymology Dictionary, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language and Merriam-Webster.
 * Added several new words which I found in those dictionaries.
 * Removed words which I didn't find. I made an exception for konik or ogonek which I've seen used in English (outside Wikipedia) and which are obviously of Polish origin. I marked them with the tag.
 * Minor changes to the "See also" section and categories.

quark
I agree with Kpalion, who suggests merging this page with the English Words of Russian Origin page into an English Words of Slavic Origin page, and for exactly the same reasons as s/he gives.

I've also heard that the word 'quark' came into English via German, in which it is used to refer to a particular type of grainy cottage cheese, and that it in turn came into German from the Polish word 'twaróg', which means precisely that sort of cheese. I lack the linguistic skills to do the necessary research to verify this.

Highlandschoolofforeignlanguages (talk) 18:55, 29 February 2008 (UTC)


 * According to the American Heritage Dictionary, quark (in the meaning of cheese, not a subatomic particle) comes from Middle High German quarc, from Lower Sorbian twarog, from Old Church Slavonic tvarogъ. So it's apparently of Slavic, but not necessarily Polish origin. Unless someone finds a source which says otherwise. &mdash; Kpalion(talk) 12:23, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

spruce: folk etymology?
I've heard the suggestion that the word 'spruce' comes from Polish. The spruce tree was indeed an export good from the medieval Prussia area, although Prussia was not a Polish language area at that time. However, the word follows a believable pattern of derivation according to (modern) Polish grammatical patterns: Prusy (nominative plural - 'Prussia'), z Prus (genitive plural - 'from Prussia'), the latter of which is pronounced just like our modern word 'spruce'. Whether this is in fact the historical derivation of the word or just an example of backwards-justifying folk etymology is something I'm curious to know.

Highlandschoolofforeignlanguages (talk) 19:08, 29 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Both American Heritage Dictionary and Online Etymology Dictionary indicate that spruce is somehow related to Prussia, but do not specifically mention a Polish link. According to AHD, it comes from Middle English Spruce, "Prussia", alteration of Pruce, from Anglo-Norman Pruz, from Medieval Latin Prussia. OED says that Spruce, Sprws are "unexplained alterations" of Pruce, "Prussia," from Old French Spruce which "seems to have been a generic term for commodities brought to England by Hanseatic merchants". The idea that these "unexplained alterations" may be explained as Polish z Prus, "from Prussia", seems fairly plausible to me, but we cannot put it in the list until we find a reliable source to back it up. &mdash; Kpalion(talk) 12:33, 1 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I also found this footnote in Henryk Zins, England and the Baltic in the Elizabethan era, 1972:
 * The name "Spruceland" and the noun "Spruce" obviously did not enter the English language as an adaptation of the Polish expression z Prus ("from Prussia"). This derivation was suggested by M. Aurousseau in "What's in an English geographical name?", Geographical Journal, vol. CXVIII, 1952, p. 193, but it was rejected by E. Słuszkiewicz, Czy ang. spruce "rodzaj jodły" pochodzi z pol. "z Prus"?, Język Polski, vol. XXXIV, 1954, pp. 309-11.
 * &mdash; Kpalion(talk) 12:50, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

Czech spelling of Czech
Dear fans of the Polish language, what's your reasoning behind the claim that Czech is a word of the Polish origin? It's nice that the Poles still use CZ – you should finally switch to Č and similar signs just like other Slavic languages, I can help you – but the truth to be told, the Czech language was using "cz" and similar combinations of letters up to the reforms by John Huss, too. The new simplified letters such as "č" weren't used in Latin, so the Bohemia-based Latin texts were using "Cz" in "Czechia" throughout the second millennium. In this sense, I believe that we never needed the Poles and the English language simply imported the Latin spelling of Czech which was taken from the Old Czech language. Does it make sense? Lumidek (talk) 18:43, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
 * You are right, . The only thing I'm wondering about now is whether such incorrect etymologies, like Czech, spruce or polka, should be removed outright or should we create an additional section for words often incorrectly regarded as of Polish origin. What do you think? — Kpalion(talk) 17:05, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I think it's a good idea to divide the list to two sections, defensible and myths - if you really know that you can divide them. Good that you mentioned Polka. It's a word of *Czech* origin In 1831, French were dancing a Scottish style dance, and the Czech patriots were rooting for the Poles who were just revolting against the Russians, or something like that, so they named the new artificial dance first shown in Prague "polka", meaning a Polish woman. A very political and artificial way to create a dance. Also note that the most famous Czech operetta is a 1913 piece by Oskar Nedbal named "Polish Blood". Lumidek (talk) 18:39, 5 May 2016 (UTC)

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Deriving Kielbasa from Hebrew
I thought Hebrew was not yet revived by the time Kielbasa appeared. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.131.110.189 (talk) 23:06, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

This is bigos
Kevlar is a stretch, it was coined by the Americans based on the surname Chwałek as mangled by the Americans ("Kwolek"). Intelligentsia is obviously Russian (that's how "ll" and "ts" ended in it). And so on, and so forth. 89.64.25.240 (talk) 23:03, 22 June 2021 (UTC)

Uhhh
Why is the second half of the article inside of the etymology section for vampire? RealDubbyTubby (talk) 18:19, 25 January 2023 (UTC)

Radium chemical element
the name comes from the Polish word radość. Eng joy. discovered by Maria Skłodowska Curie 217.97.114.133 (talk) 15:46, 24 June 2024 (UTC)