Advanced search
Advanced search
Advanced search
Advanced search
Advanced search
The article presents the etymology and history of two basic terms of language etiquette: grzeczny (‘polite’) and grzeczność (‘politeness’). The author shows how the semantics of the noun rzecz, which was derived from the verb rzec, evolved to the meaning correspondent to the Latin noun res. From rzeczy the prepositional phrase was created k rzeczy → krzeczy → grzeczny (vocalization before the word-initial sonorant) which implicated the meaning ‘precisely, sensibly, properly’, and the subsequentgrzeczny, originally ‘suitable, proper’, then ‘sensible’, and finally ‘polite’ (from the 17th c., widespread from the 18th c.). Grzecz ność, derived from the word grzeczny with its latter definition, established and spreaded in the 18th c. the meaning still valid nowadays: ‘courtesy, politeness, good manners’.
10.17651/POLON.35.7 ; oai:rcin.org.pl:57750
Copyright-protected material. May be used within the limits of statutory user freedoms
Institute of Polish Language of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Oct 2, 2020
Jan 24, 2016
1061
https://rcin.org.pl./publication/78137
Edition name | Date |
---|---|
Historical linguist on grzeczny (‘polite’) and grzeczność (‘politeness’) / Walczak, Bogdan | Oct 2, 2020 |
Luto-Kamińska, Anetta
Pisarkowa, Krystyna (1932– )