Theethnonyms for thePoles (people)[1] andPoland (their country)[2] includeendonyms (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 theWest Slavic tribe ofPolans (Polanie), while in some languages the exonyms for Poland to derive from the name of another tribe – theLendians (Lędzianie).
ThePolish words for a Pole arePolak (masculine) andPolka (feminine),Polki being the plural form for two or more women andPolacy being the plural form for the rest. The adjective "Polish" translates to Polish aspolski (masculine),polska (feminine) andpolskie (neuter). The common Polish name forPoland isPolska. The latter Polish word is an adjectival form which has developed into a substantivenoun, most probably originating in the phrasepolska ziemia, meaning "Polish land".[3]
The full official name of the Polish state isRzeczpospolita Polska which translates to "Republic of Poland". The wordrzeczpospolita has been used inPoland since at least the 16th century. Originally it was a generic term used to denote any state with arepublican or similar form of government. Today, however, the word is used almost solely in reference to thePolish State. Any other republic is referred to asrepublika in modern Polish.
It is often assumed that all of the above names derive from the name of thePolans (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 descended ultimately fromProto-Slavic andProto-Indo-European. It may derive from the wordpole, 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):InterAlpes Huniae etOceanum 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 usedPolska to describe their own territory in theWarta River basin. During the 10th century, they managed to subdue and unite the Slavic tribes between the riversOder andBug into a singlefeudal state and in the early 11th century, the namePolska was extended to the entire ethnically Polish territory. The lands originally inhabited by the Polans became known asStaropolska, or "Old Poland", and later asWielkopolska, or "Greater Poland", while the lands conquered towards the end of the 10th century, home of theVistulans (Wiślanie) and theLendians, became known asMałopolska, or "Lesser Poland."
In Polish literature, Poland is sometimes referred to asLechia, derived from Lech, the legendaryfounder of Poland. In the 17th–18th centuries,Sarmaci ("Sarmatians") was a popular name by which Polish nobles referred to themselves (seeSarmatism).
The earliest recorded mention of the adjective "Polish" 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]Polonia is first found in theAnnales Quedlinburgensis,[6] in the entry for 1002:Sed et Bolitzlavonem Poloniae ducem occurrisse et regis gratiam sibi supplicasse foedere pacis promisso reperiunt, quae quia firma non fuit, postmodum patuit (But they also find that Boleslaw, Duke of Poland, had met and begged the king's favor, promising a treaty of peace, which, since it was not firm, was later revoked).
Lechia is an ancient name of Poland,[7][8] stemming from the legendary founder and supposed ruler,Lech (a common first name today). The root syllable survives in severalEuropean 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 nameLechia. The best-known example isLechia Gdańsk. Other examples includeLechia Lwów andLechia Zielona Góra. In thePeople's Republic of Poland, theNivea branch located inPoznań was named the Pollena-Lechia Cosmetics Factory (Fabryka Kosmetyków Pollena-Lechia).
Variations of the country endonymPolska became exonyms in other languages.
Exonyms for Poland inSlavic languages. The West Slavic languages such as Czech and Slovak bear particular resemblance to the Polish endonym:
Non-Slavic languages which borrowed their word for Poland from Slavic include:
InLatin, which was the principal written language of theMiddle Ages, the exonym for Poland becamePolonia. It later became the basis for Poland's name in allRomance languages:
Many other languages (e.g.AlbanianPolonia;Arabic بولونياBūlūniyā;Greek Πολωνία,Polōnía;MaltesePolonja) use a variation of the Latin name.
In Romanian, the current names used for Poles are neologismspolonezi and, less frequently,poloni, while the country is calledPolonia. However, historically, the people were called by other names:poleci (sg.poleac) orleși/lehi/leahi (with singular formsleah, leav, leaf orleș). The latter forms are derived from the same source asLechia, via Ukrainian. The name of Poland used in chronicles wasȚara Leșască, literally "the Polish country".[11][12]
Germans, Poland's western neighbors, called itPolen. OtherGermanic languages use related exonyms:
Non-Germanic languages which borrowed their word for Poland from Germanic include:
TheLendians, a Proto-Polish tribe who lived around the confluence of the riversVistula andSan (south-eastern Poland), are the source of another exonym. The tribe's name likely comes from the Proto-Polish wordlęda, or "scorched land".[3] Their name was borrowed to refer to Poland mainly by peoples who lived east or south of Poland:
Some common English words, as well as scientific nomenclature, derive from exonyms of Poland in various languages.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[...] 'easternWends,' meaning obviously the Vjatyci/Radimici,Laesir 'Poles' or 'Western Slavs' (cf. Old Rus'ianljaxy) [...].
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