In the contemporary English language, the nounPolack (/ˈpoʊlɑːk/ and/-læk/) is aderogatory term, mainlyNorth American, reference to a person ofPolish origin.[1][2] It is ananglicisation of thePolish masculine nounPolak, which denotes a person of Polish ethnicity and typically male gender.[3][4] However, the Englishloanword is considered anethnic slur.[5][6]
According toOnline Etymology Dictionary by Douglas Harper,Polack meant as "Polish immigrant, person of Polish descent" was used in American English until the late 19th century (1879) to describe a "Polish person" in a non-offensive way (1574).[7]Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) based on theUnabridged Dictionary by Random House claims that the word originated between 1590 and 1600. For example, inShakespeare's tragedyHamlet, the characterHoratio uses the termPolacks to refer to the opponents of Hamlet's father:
Such was the very armour he had on
When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.
In an Irish-published edition ofHamlet by theEducational Company, Patrick Murray noted: "Some editors, however, argue thatPolacks should read aspole-axe, and that Horatio is remembering an angryOld Hamlet striking the ice with his battle-axe".[8]
On 26 July 2008,The Times featured a comment piece by restaurant reviewer and columnistGiles Coren which contained viewpoints that many Poles considered to beanti-Polish. In a piece, entitled "Two waves of immigration, Poles apart", Coren used theethnic slurPolack to describe Polish immigrants who can "clear off", in reference to Polish immigrants leaving the United Kingdom in response to low-paying construction jobs drying up. He went on to articulate his views about the role of Poles inthe Holocaust in occupied Poland, referring to the fact that his great-grandfather had left Poland for the United Kingdom:[9]
The piece prompted a letter of complaint toThe Times from the Polish ambassador to the UK,Barbara Tuge-Erecińska. She wrote that "the issue of Polish–Jewish relations has been unfairly and deeply falsified" by his "aggressive remarks" and "contempt".[10] Coren's comments caused theFederation of Poles in Great Britain to attempt to demand a published apology fromThe Times under threat of an official complaint to thePress Complaints Commission, which has the power to force an official apology.[11] After the Press Complaints Commission rejected their complaint because the criticism had been of a group rather than an individual, the Federation of Poles in Great Britain lodged a complaint at theEuropean Court of Human Rights.[12]
The neutralEnglish language noun for a Polish person (male or female) today isPole (see also:Naming Poland in foreign languages). In some other languages such asSwedish,Norwegian orScots,polack orpolakk are inoffensive terms for a person from Poland.[13]
InIberian languages,polaco is a mild slur for people fromCatalonia,[14] though it is a completely neutral way of referring to Polish people in all Ibero-American countries except Brazil, where it became a politically incorrect term, and the noun used for Polish people nowadays ispolonês (such term is absent from Spanish and other Portuguese variants).
InUkrainian, the oldexonymлях (lyakh,lyakhy) is now considered offensive[15] In Russian the same word, formerly often used with negative connotations but not generally offensive, is obsolete. In both languages it was replaced by the neutralполяк (polyak).
Another common Russian ethnic slur for Poles isпшек (pshek), anonomatopoeia derived fromPolish phonology: prepositionsprze- andprzy- are quite common, withrz corresponding to the sound of "zh", and the sibilant-sounding speech (e.g.,przepraszam ("excuse me") transcribed as "pzheprasham") has been a target of mockery in Russian culture.[16]
InPolish, termpolaczek (sometimes capitalised asPolaczek; plural:polaczki) is seen as a disrespectful or offensive term for Polish person. In Polish-language media, it is usually also used as a direct translation for English termPolack.[17]
