Unlike
Spanish or
Portuguese, the Polish language hasn’t given English a lot of words. Of the few words English has borrowed from Polish, most have remained unchanged and they usually refer to Polish products (mostly food), so they are not too surprising but we can still find some interesting words to talk about.
English words of Polish in Food
The two best known Polish words in English are without a doubt
kielbasa and
pierogi. They are both popular
food items that can be found in any supermarket and both words come straight from Polish without any changes, English just pronounces them in a different way.
Another word related to food that comes from Polish is a
vitamin. It was invented by Polish biochemist Casimir Funk when he first discovered the existence of vitamins, he called them vitamine.
Words that came through other languages
Most Polish words that made their way to English did it through other languages after many centuries and the original Polish is now almost lost. However, a few words can still be traced back to their Polish beginnings.
Three words that followed this process are q
uartz (from kwardy) and
horde (from horda) that made their way through German, and
schlub (from zlob) that did it through Yiddish.
Things named after Poland
Even though there aren’t a lot of words that came to
English through Polish, there are some things that are named after Poland.
Polonium, the radioactive element, was named after the country as its discoverer scientist Marie Curie was born there. The
Silesaurus dinosaur is named after Silesia in Poland as it was first found in that area.
A Spoonerism (confusing the first letters of two words) can also be called a
Marrowsky, which is believed to be the name of a Polish count who would often make the mistake.
To know more about is always better to learn the English language with Way
Language school using
Callan method.
And finally, something named after Poland by mistake! The
spruce tree, so popular during
Christmas, is named after Prussia (from z Pruse) as English buyers believed that’s where the tree came from.
