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Names of Poland

April 12, 2024

The ethnonyms for the Poles (people)[1] and Poland (their country)[2] include endonyms (the way Polish people refer to themselves and their country) and exonyms (the way other peoples refer to the Poles and their country). Endonyms and most exonyms for Poles and Poland derive from the name of the West Slavic tribe of Polans (Polanie), while in some languages the exonyms for Poland to derive from the name of another tribe – the Lendians (Lędzianie).

An 18th century map labeled "Poland"
A Denarius from the 11th century with the Latin name "Polonie".
Poland of 11th century under Bolesław I the Brave.
Name "Polonia" in 11th century Annales Quedlinburgenses.
11th century „Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum Adam of Bremen note Polans "trans Oddaram sunt Polanos".

Endonyms edit

The Polish words for a Pole are Polak (masculine) and Polka (feminine), Polki being the plural form for two or more women and Polacy being the plural form for the rest. The adjective "Polish" translates to Polish as polski (masculine), polska (feminine) and polskie (neuter). The common Polish name for Poland is Polska. The latter Polish word is an adjectival form which has developed into a substantive noun, most probably originating in the phrase polska ziemia, meaning "Polish land".[3]

Rzeczpospolita edit

Main article: Rzeczpospolita

The full official name of the Polish state is Rzeczpospolita Polska which translates to "Republic of Poland". The word rzeczpospolita has been used in Poland since at least the 16th century. Originally it was a generic term used to denote any state with a republican or similar form of government. Today, however, the word is used almost solely in reference to the Polish State. Any other republic is referred to as republika in modern Polish.

Language roots edit

Main article: Polans (western)

It is often assumed that all of the above names derive from the name of the Polans (Polanie), a West Slavic tribe which inhabited the territories of present-day Poland in the 9th–10th centuries. The origin of the name Polanie is theorized to be descendend ultimately from Proto-Slavic and Proto-Indo-European. It may derive from the word pole, Polish for "field".[4]

Many ancient tribes in Europe derived their names from the nature of the land they inhabited. Gervase of Tilbury wrote in his Otia imperialia ("Recreation for an Emperor", 1211): Inter Alpes Huniae et Oceanum est Polonia, sic dicta in eorum idiomate quasi Campania.(translation: "Between the Hunnic Alps and the Ocean there is Poland, thus called "Countryside" in their idiom.") Polans may have used Polska to describe their own territory in the Warta River basin. During the 10th century, they managed to subdue and unite the Slavic tribes between the rivers Oder and Bug into a single feudal state and in the early 11th century, the name Polska was extended to the entire ethnically Polish territory. The lands originally inhabited by the Polans became known as Staropolska, or "Old Poland", and later as Wielkopolska, or "Greater Poland", while the lands conquered towards the end of the 10th century, home of the Vistulans (Wiślanie) and the Lendians, became known as Małopolska, or "Lesser Poland."

In Polish literature, Poland is sometimes referred to as Lechia, derived from Lech, the legendary founder of Poland. In the 17th–18th centuries, Sarmaci ("Sarmatians") was a popular name by which Polish nobles referred to themselves (see Sarmatism).

"Poland" in European literary sources edit

The earliest recorded mention of "Poland" is found in a Latin text written in 1003 and titled "Annales Hildesheimenses": "Heinricus Berthaldi comitis filius, et Bruno frater regis, et ambo Bolizavones, Polianicus vide licet ac Boemicus, a rege infideliter maiestatis rei deficient." In English: Henry, son of Berthold, and Bruno, brother of the king, and both Boleslaws, Polish and Czech, left the circle of friends of the Emperor.[5]

Lechia edit

 
Depiction of the legendary ruler Lech, with the description: "Lech the first prince of Poland"

Lechia is an ancient name of Poland,[6][7] stemming from the legendary founder and supposed ruler, Lech (a common first name today). The root syllable survives in several European languages and in some Central Asian and Middle Eastern names designating Poland, for example:

Similar names were used in older languages, such as:

Several Polish sports organizations have adopted the name Lechia. The best-known example is Lechia Gdańsk. Other examples include Lechia Lwów and Lechia Zielona Góra. In the People's Republic of Poland, the Nivea branch located in Poznań was named the Pollena-Lechia Cosmetics Factory (Fabryka Kosmetyków Pollena-Lechia).

Exonyms edit

Variations of the country endonym Polska became exonyms in other languages.

In Slavic languages edit

Exonyms for Poland in Slavic languages. The West Slavic languages such as Czech and Slovak bear particular resemblance to the Polish endonym:

Non-Germanic languages which borrowed their word for Poland from Slavic include:

In Romance languages edit

In Latin, which was the principal written language of the Middle Ages, the exonym for Poland became Polonia. It later became the basis for Poland's name in all Romance languages:

Many other languages (e.g. Albanian Polonia; Arabic بولونيا Būlūniyā; Greek Πολωνία, Polōnía; Maltese Polonja) use a variation of the Latin name.

In Germanic languages edit

Germans, Poland's western neighbors, called it Polen. Other Germanic languages use related exonyms:

  • Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian Polen
  • English Poland
  • Icelandic, Faroese Pólland
  • Yiddish פּױלן‎, Poyln

Non-Germanic languages which borrowed their word for Poland from Germanic include:

Other edit

The Lendians, a Proto-Polish tribe who lived around the confluence of the rivers Vistula and San (south-eastern Poland), are the source of another exonym. The tribe's name likely comes from the Proto-Polish word lęda, or "scorched land".[3] Their name was borrowed to refer to Poland mainly by peoples who lived east or south of Poland:

  • лях (lyakh) is used in East Slavic languages. It also appears in Polish literature as Lachy, a synonym for "Poles" and "Poland" used by East Slavic characters. Podlasie, a Polish region on the Belarusian border, derives its name from the same root. Lachy Sądeckie is the name of a small cultural group around Nowy Sącz in southern Lesser Poland.
  • Lithuanian Lenkija
  • Hungarian Lengyelország
  • Georgian პოლონეთი, Poloneti
  • Persian لهستان, Lahestān. The word combines Lah with a common Persian suffix -stān, which means "The land of".
  • Turkish Lehistan, a borrowing from Persian. It is now considered obsolete and replaced by Polonya.[10]
  • Armenian Լեհաստան, Lehastan was also borrowed from Persian.

Related words edit

Some common English words, as well as scientific nomenclature, derive from exonyms of Poland in various languages.

  • Alla polacca, like a polonaise (in musical notation); Italian for "Polish style"
  • Polacca, a type of 17th-century sailing vessel
  • Polka, a dance and genre of dance music originally from Bohemia; Czech (also Polish) "Pole" (feminine)
  • Polonaise, several meanings including a dance of Polish origin; from French polonaise, "Polish" (feminine)
  • Pologne, several meanings including Polish Haitians, from French name for Poland
  • 1112 Polonia, an asteroid; from Latin Polonia, "Poland"
  • Polonium, a chemical element; from Latin Polonia
  • Polska, a dance of Swedish origin; from Swedish polska, "Polish"
  • Poulaines, a type of shoes popular in the 15th century in Europe; from Old French polain, "Polish"
  • Polonia, the term to describe people of Polish origin living outside of Poland and in other countries.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Polani by John Canaparius, Vita sancti Adalberti episcopi Pragensis, or Life of St. Adalbert of Prague, 999.
  2. ^ Polenia by Thietmar of Merseburg Chronicle, 1002. (German: Polen)
  3. ^ a b (in Polish) Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN
  4. ^ "fr. pal, pele, altd. pal, pael, dn. pael, sw. pale, isl. pall, bre. pal, peul, it. polo, pole, pila, [in:] A dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon languages. Joseph Bosworth. S.275.; planus, plain, flat; from Indo-European pele, flat, to spread, also the root of words like plan, floor, and field. [in:] John Hejduk. Soundings. 1993. p. 399"; "the root pele is the source of the English words "field" and "floor". The root "plak" is the source of the English word "flake" [in:] Loren Edward Meierding. Ace the Verbal on the SAT. 2005. p. 82
  5. ^ G.K. Walkowski (tr.) (2013), Vvitichindus, Res gestae Saxonicae. Annales Corbeienses. Annales Hildesheimenses, Bydgoszcz, ISBN 978-83-930932-9-8{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ^ "Laesir is the Old Norse term for the Ljachar, a people originating at the river Vistula in Poland". [in:] Theodore Murdock Andersson, Kari Ellen Gade Morkinskinna : The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030–1157). ISBN 978-0-8014-3694-9 p. 471; "The word here for Poles is "Laesum" – the dative plural from a nominative plural "Laesir". This clearly is derived from the old name for Pole – "Lyakh", since in the course of the Slavonic paradigm -kh- becomes -s-in accordance with the "second palatalization" and the addition of the regular Norse plural ending of -ir- [...] [in:] The Ukrainian review. 1963. p. 70
  7. ^ Pritsak, Omeljan; Hryshevs'kyi, Mykhailo S (1981). The Origin of Rus': Old Scandinavian sources other than the sagas. Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute monograph series. Vol. 1 of The Origin of Rus'. Harvard University Press. p. 300. ISBN 9780674644656. Retrieved 20 July 2020. [...] 'eastern Wends,' meaning obviously the Vjatyci/Radimici, Laesir 'Poles' or 'Western Slavs' (cf. Old Rus'ian ljaxy) [...].
  8. ^ Panaite, Viorel (2019). "Glossary of Ottoman Turkish Terms and Locutions on War, Peace and Tributaries". Ottoman Law of War and Peace. Brill. p. 412. ISBN 9789004411104.
  9. ^ a b Maciuszak, Kinga (2008). "The Persian suffix -(e)stān 'the land of'" (PDF). Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia. 13: 130. ISSN 1427-8219.
  10. ^ (in Turkish) Lehistan in Turkish Wikipedia

External links edit

 
Look up Poland in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  • List of exonyms for Poland article at geonames.de

April 12, 2024
names, poland, ethnonyms, poles, people, poland, their, country, include, endonyms, polish, people, refer, themselves, their, country, exonyms, other, peoples, refer, poles, their, country, endonyms, most, exonyms, poles, poland, derive, from, name, west, slav. The ethnonyms for the Poles people 1 and Poland their country 2 include endonyms the way Polish people refer to themselves and their country and exonyms the way other peoples refer to the Poles and their country Endonyms and most exonyms for Poles and Poland derive from the name of the West Slavic tribe of Polans Polanie while in some languages the exonyms for Poland to derive from the name of another tribe the Lendians Ledzianie An 18th century map labeled Poland A Denarius from the 11th century with the Latin name Polonie Poland of 11th century under Boleslaw I the Brave Name Polonia in 11th century Annales Quedlinburgenses 11th century Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum Adam of Bremen note Polans trans Oddaram sunt Polanos Contents 1 Endonyms 1 1 Rzeczpospolita 1 2 Language roots 1 3 Poland in European literary sources 2 Lechia 3 Exonyms 3 1 In Slavic languages 3 2 In Romance languages 3 3 In Germanic languages 3 4 Other 4 Related words 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksEndonyms editThe Polish words for a Pole are Polak masculine and Polka feminine Polki being the plural form for two or more women and Polacy being the plural form for the rest The adjective Polish translates to Polish as polski masculine polska feminine and polskie neuter The common Polish name for Poland is Polska The latter Polish word is an adjectival form which has developed into a substantive noun most probably originating in the phrase polska ziemia meaning Polish land 3 Rzeczpospolita edit Main article Rzeczpospolita The full official name of the Polish state is Rzeczpospolita Polska which translates to Republic of Poland The word rzeczpospolita has been used in Poland since at least the 16th century Originally it was a generic term used to denote any state with a republican or similar form of government Today however the word is used almost solely in reference to the Polish State Any other republic is referred to as republika in modern Polish Language roots edit Main article Polans western It is often assumed that all of the above names derive from the name of the Polans Polanie a West Slavic tribe which inhabited the territories of present day Poland in the 9th 10th centuries The origin of the name Polanie is theorized to be descendend ultimately from Proto Slavic and Proto Indo European It may derive from the word pole Polish for field 4 Many ancient tribes in Europe derived their names from the nature of the land they inhabited Gervase of Tilbury wrote in his Otia imperialia Recreation for an Emperor 1211 Inter Alpes Huniae et Oceanum est Polonia sic dicta in eorum idiomate quasi Campania translation Between the Hunnic Alps and the Ocean there is Poland thus called Countryside in their idiom Polans may have used Polska to describe their own territory in the Warta River basin During the 10th century they managed to subdue and unite the Slavic tribes between the rivers Oder and Bug into a single feudal state and in the early 11th century the name Polska was extended to the entire ethnically Polish territory The lands originally inhabited by the Polans became known as Staropolska or Old Poland and later as Wielkopolska or Greater Poland while the lands conquered towards the end of the 10th century home of the Vistulans Wislanie and the Lendians became known as Malopolska or Lesser Poland In Polish literature Poland is sometimes referred to as Lechia derived from Lech the legendary founder of Poland In the 17th 18th centuries Sarmaci Sarmatians was a popular name by which Polish nobles referred to themselves see Sarmatism Poland in European literary sources edit The earliest recorded mention of Poland is found in a Latin text written in 1003 and titled Annales Hildesheimenses Heinricus Berthaldi comitis filius et Bruno frater regis et ambo Bolizavones Polianicus vide licet ac Boemicus a rege infideliter maiestatis rei deficient In English Henry son of Berthold and Bruno brother of the king and both Boleslaws Polish and Czech left the circle of friends of the Emperor 5 Lechia edit nbsp Depiction of the legendary ruler Lech with the description Lech the first prince of Poland Lechia is an ancient name of Poland 6 7 stemming from the legendary founder and supposed ruler Lech a common first name today The root syllable survives in several European languages and in some Central Asian and Middle Eastern names designating Poland for example Lenkija in Lithuanian Lehia in Romanian Lengyelorszag in Hungarian Lehastan in Armenian Lehistan in Ottoman Turkish 8 9 modern Turkish Gagauz Kumyk and Crimean Tatar Lihѧna in Church Slavonic Lahybze in Kabardian Laҳiston Lahiston in Tajik Lahistan Lehestan لهستان in Persian 9 and Urdu Lahistan لەھىستان in Uighur Lexia in Greek Laxstan in Tatar Bashkir and Siberian Tatar Liachistan Liachija Lech Jer Liach Liach Bijligi in KaraimSimilar names were used in older languages such as Lechitarum in Latin Leasir in Old NorseSeveral Polish sports organizations have adopted the name Lechia The best known example is Lechia Gdansk Other examples include Lechia Lwow and Lechia Zielona Gora In the People s Republic of Poland the Nivea branch located in Poznan was named the Pollena Lechia Cosmetics Factory Fabryka Kosmetykow Pollena Lechia Exonyms editVariations of the country endonym Polska became exonyms in other languages In Slavic languages edit Exonyms for Poland in Slavic languages The West Slavic languages such as Czech and Slovak bear particular resemblance to the Polish endonym Kashubian Polsko Czech Polsko Slovak Poľsko Serbo Croatian Poљska Poljska Slovene Poljska Belarusian Polshcha Pol shcha Ukrainian Polsha Pol shcha Russian Polsha Pol sha Bulgarian Polsha Polsha Macedonian Polska PolskaNon Germanic languages which borrowed their word for Poland from Slavic include Abkhaz Polsha Ṗol sa Azerbaijani Gagauz Polsa Bashkir Kazakh Kyrgyz Tatar Turkmen Polsha Polsa North Korean standard language 뽈스까 Ppolsŭkka Uzbek Polsha PolshaIn Romance languages edit In Latin which was the principal written language of the Middle Ages the exonym for Poland became Polonia It later became the basis for Poland s name in all Romance languages Catalan Polonia Occitan Polonha French Pologne Italian Galician Romanian Spanish Polonia Portuguese Polonia European Polonia Brazilian Many other languages e g Albanian Polonia Arabic بولونيا Buluniya Greek Polwnia Polōnia Maltese Polonja use a variation of the Latin name In Germanic languages edit Germans Poland s western neighbors called it Polen Other Germanic languages use related exonyms Dutch Danish Swedish Norwegian Polen English Poland Icelandic Faroese Polland Yiddish פ ױלן PoylnNon Germanic languages which borrowed their word for Poland from Germanic include Arabic بولندا Bulanda Esperanto Pollando Polio Polujo Hebrew פ ו ל ין Polin Older pronunciation פ ו ל ין Polin and פ ו ל נ י ה Polania Indonesian Polandia Irish An Pholainn Japanese ポーランド Pōrando Chinese 波兰 simplified or 波蘭 traditional Bōlan South Korean standard language 폴란드 Pollandeu Vietnamese Ba Lan Ba Lan Other edit The Lendians a Proto Polish tribe who lived around the confluence of the rivers Vistula and San south eastern Poland are the source of another exonym The tribe s name likely comes from the Proto Polish word leda or scorched land 3 Their name was borrowed to refer to Poland mainly by peoples who lived east or south of Poland lyah lyakh is used in East Slavic languages It also appears in Polish literature as Lachy a synonym for Poles and Poland used by East Slavic characters Podlasie a Polish region on the Belarusian border derives its name from the same root Lachy Sadeckie is the name of a small cultural group around Nowy Sacz in southern Lesser Poland Lithuanian Lenkija Hungarian Lengyelorszag Georgian პოლონეთი Poloneti Persian لهستان Lahestan The word combines Lah with a common Persian suffix stan which means The land of Turkish Lehistan a borrowing from Persian It is now considered obsolete and replaced by Polonya 10 Armenian Լեհաստան Lehastan was also borrowed from Persian Related words editSome common English words as well as scientific nomenclature derive from exonyms of Poland in various languages Alla polacca like a polonaise in musical notation Italian for Polish style Polacca a type of 17th century sailing vessel Polka a dance and genre of dance music originally from Bohemia Czech also Polish Pole feminine Polonaise several meanings including a dance of Polish origin from French polonaise Polish feminine Pologne several meanings including Polish Haitians from French name for Poland 1112 Polonia an asteroid from Latin Polonia Poland Polonium a chemical element from Latin Polonia Polska a dance of Swedish origin from Swedish polska Polish Poulaines a type of shoes popular in the 15th century in Europe from Old French polain Polish Polonia the term to describe people of Polish origin living outside of Poland and in other countries See also editCivitas Schinesghe Exonym and endonym Lechitic languages Lechites List of country name etymologies Polish names Polish tribes Polonia disambiguation Polska LudowaReferences edit Polani by John Canaparius Vita sancti Adalberti episcopi Pragensis or Life of St Adalbert of Prague 999 Polenia by Thietmar of Merseburg Chronicle 1002 German Polen a b in Polish Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN fr pal pele altd pal pael dn pael sw pale isl pall bre pal peul it polo pole pila in A dictionary of the Anglo Saxon languages Joseph Bosworth S 275 planus plain flat from Indo European pele flat to spread also the root of words like plan floor and field in John Hejduk Soundings 1993 p 399 the root pele is the source of the English words field and floor The root plak is the source of the English word flake in Loren Edward Meierding Ace the Verbal on the SAT 2005 p 82 G K Walkowski tr 2013 Vvitichindus Res gestae Saxonicae Annales Corbeienses Annales Hildesheimenses Bydgoszcz ISBN 978 83 930932 9 8 a href Template Citation html title Template Citation citation a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Laesir is the Old Norse term for the Ljachar a people originating at the river Vistula in Poland in Theodore Murdock Andersson Kari Ellen Gade Morkinskinna The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings 1030 1157 ISBN 978 0 8014 3694 9 p 471 The word here for Poles is Laesum the dative plural from a nominative plural Laesir This clearly is derived from the old name for Pole Lyakh since in the course of the Slavonic paradigm kh becomes s in accordance with the second palatalization and the addition of the regular Norse plural ending of ir in The Ukrainian review 1963 p 70 Pritsak Omeljan Hryshevs kyi Mykhailo S 1981 The Origin of Rus Old Scandinavian sources other than the sagas Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute monograph series Vol 1 of The Origin of Rus Harvard University Press p 300 ISBN 9780674644656 Retrieved 20 July 2020 eastern Wends meaning obviously the Vjatyci Radimici Laesir Poles or Western Slavs cf Old Rus ian ljaxy Panaite Viorel 2019 Glossary of Ottoman Turkish Terms and Locutions on War Peace and Tributaries Ottoman Law of War and Peace Brill p 412 ISBN 9789004411104 a b Maciuszak Kinga 2008 The Persian suffix e stan the land of PDF Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia 13 130 ISSN 1427 8219 in Turkish Lehistan in Turkish WikipediaExternal links edit nbsp Look up Poland in Wiktionary the free dictionary List of exonyms for Poland article at geonames de Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Names of Poland amp oldid 1175643252 Lechia, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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