Name of Poland.html



An 18th century map labeled "Poland"

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 derive from the name of another tribe – the Lendians (Lędzianie).

Endonyms

The Polish words for a Pole are Polak (masculine) and Polka (feminine), Polacy being the plural form. 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 The full official name of the Polish state is Rzeczpospolita Polska which loosely translates as "Polish Republic" (see Rzeczpospolita for details).

All of the above names derive from the name of the Polans, one of the strongest of the tribes inhabitating the territories of present-day Poland in the 9th-10th centuries. The origin of the name Polanie itself is uncertain. It may derive from such Polish words as pole ("field"), opole ("group of villages belonging to one clan", an early administrative unit) or plemię ("tribe").

Polska was initially a name used by the Polans to describe their own tribal territory in the Warta River basin. During the 10th century, the Polans managed to subdue and unite the Slavic tribes between the rivers Oder and Western 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).

Exonyms

Variations of the country endonym Polska became exonyms in other languages. Exonyms for Poland in other Slavic languages bear particular resemblance to the Polish endonym (Kashubian Pòlskô; Czech Polsko; Slovak Poľsko; Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian Poljska; Belarusian Польшча, Pol'shcha; Russian Польша, Pol'sha, Bulgarian Полша, Polsha). 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 (Italian, Romanian, Spanish Polonia; Catalan Polònia; Portuguese Polónia; French Pologne) and many other languages (e.g. Albanian Polonia; Greek Πολωνία, Polōnía). Germans, Poland's western neighbors, called it Polen from which exonyms for Poland in other Germanic (Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian Polen; English Poland; Icelandic, Faroese Pólland; Yiddish פױלן, Poyln) and other languages (e.g. Arabic بولندا, Bolánda; Hebrew פולין, Polin; Indonesian Polandia; Irish An Pholainn; Japanese ポーランド, Pōrando) are derived.

There is, however, a group of languages, where the exonym for Poland derives from the name of Lendians, a proto-Polish tribe that lived around the confluence of rivers Vistula and San, in what is now south-eastern Poland. Their name derived probably from the Proto-Polish word lęda, or "scorched land".³ Not surprisingly, this kind of exonyms are used primarily by the peoples who lived east or south of Poland. Among those exonyms are:

• лях (lyakh) used in East Slavic languages. The historical region of Poland on the Belarusian border known as Podlachia (Polish Podlasie) derives its name from that East Slavic exonym. Today, Lachy Sądeckie is a name of a small ethnic group around Nowy Sącz in southern Lesser Poland. In Polish literature, the word Lachy is used by East Slavic characters as synonyms for "Poles" and "Poland".
• Lithuanian Lenkija
• Hungarian Lengyelország
• Turkish Lehistan (now considered obsolete and replaced by Polonya).⁴ The latter became the basis for Poland exonyms in a number of other Middle Eastern languages, including: Kurdish لێھستان, Lohêstan; Armenian Լեհաստան, Lehastan; Persian, Tajik لهستان, Lahestan.

In some languages the Polish endonym Polak became an ethnic slur used to describe a Pole. Examples include English Polack (pronounced Polock and formerly a neutral term⁵, for example in Hamlet's references to "the Polack wars") and French polaque. In other languages this is the neutral word for Polish or a Pole (e.g. Swedish polack, Italian polacco, Portuguese and Spanish polaco). In Russian and Ukrainian the old exonym лях (lyakh) is now considered offensive⁶ and is replaced by the neutral поляк (polyak), although the latter's diminutive form, полячёк (polyachyok) is pejorative as well.

Related words

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

• Alla polacca, like a polonaise (in musical notation); Italian for "Polish style"
• Polonaise, a dance of Polish origin; from French polonaise, or "Polish" (feminine)
• 1112 Polonia, an asteroid; from Latin Polonia, or "Poland"
• Polonium, a chemical element; from Latin Polonia
• Polska, a dance of Swedish origin; from Swedish polska, or "Polish"
• Poulaines, a type of shoes popular in the 15th century Europe; from Old French polain, or "Polish"

See also

Look up Poland in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Exonym and endonym
• List of country name etymologies
• Polish tribes
• Lechia
• Polish names
• Polonia
• Prehistory of Poland
• Rzeczpospolita

References

External links

• List of exonyms for Poland at Geonames

v • d • e National symbols of Poland Constitutional Coat of arms · Flag and colors · Anthem Military Military eagles · Flags · Air Force checkerboard Historical Crown jewels · Banner · Grunwald Swords Patron saints Adalbert · Stanislaus · Black Madonna Names and codes Name of Poland · Rzeczpospolita · .pl Unofficial Songs · Mottos · National costume Category