![Wielki_słownik_ortograficzny_PWN_2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Wielki_s%C5%82ownik_ortograficzny_PWN_2016.jpg)
The earliest dictionaries of the Polish language were bilingual aids, usually Polish–
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, and date to the 15th century. The first dictionary dedicated solely to the
Polish language
Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...
was published in the early 19th century. Many dictionaries of the Polish language are named simply "the Dictionary of the Polish Language" ( pl, Słownik języka polskiego) or in similar fashion.
Bilingual
![Vocabularis_breviloquus_BUAM](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Vocabularis_breviloquus_BUAM.JPG)
The first Polish dictionaries took the form of Polish–
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
(or more correctly,
Old Polish
The Old Polish language ( pl, język staropolski, staropolszczyzna) was a period in the history of the Polish language between the 10th and the 16th centuries. It was followed by the Middle Polish language.
The sources for the study of the Ol ...
–Latin)
bilingual translation aids and date to the 15th century. The oldest known one is the ' from 1424; it contains about 500 entries, and is associated with the Prince
Alexander of Masovia
Alexander of Masovia (pl: ''Aleksander mazowiecki''; 1400 - 2 June 1444) was a Polish prince member of the House of Piast from the Masovian branch. He was Bishop of Trento since 1425, titular Patriarch of Aquileia since 1439, Cardinal nominated by ...
.
The largest of those earliest dictionaries was the
Silesian ''Mamotrekt kaliski'' (from ), with about 7,000 entries.
The 16th century saw a proliferation of printed dictionaries; the first of those were written abroad and reprinted in Poland. The first such dictionary was the trilingual German–Latin–Polish ' from 1526. It had about 2,500 entries and was based on the work of the Dutch scholar
Johannes Murmellius and published in Poland by
Hieronim Wietor (most likely with Wietor responsible for the German part, and for the Polish). Dozens of other bilingual Polish dictionaries were published in the subsequent centuries by scholars such as ,
Johann Reuchlin
Johann Reuchlin (; sometimes called Johannes; 29 January 1455 – 30 June 1522) was a German Catholic humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew, whose work also took him to modern-day Austria, Switzerland, and Italy and France. Most of Reuchlin' ...
,
Jan Mączyński Jan Mączyński (c. 1520 – c. 1587) was a Polish humanist and lexicographer. He was appointed as canon of the Collegiate church in Kalisz. Mączyński was the author of a Polish-Latin Dictionary published around 1564 with 1000 pages and 20,500 La ...
, ,
Grzegorz Knapski and others.
General
![PL_Linde-Slownik_Jezyka_Polskiego_T](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/PL_Linde-Slownik_Jezyka_Polskiego_T.1_Cz.1_A-F_001.jpg)
Many dictionaries in the Polish language and dedicated to the Polish language bear the generic name ''Słownik języka polskiego'' (lit. the Dictionary of the Polish Language).
was published by
Samuel Linde
Samuel Gottlieb Linde (polonised ''Samuel Bogumił Linde''; 11 or 24 April 1771, in Toruń – 8 August 1847, in Warsaw) was a linguist, librarian, and lexicographer of the Polish language. He was director of the Prussian-founded Warsaw Lyceum ...
in the early 19th century (in six volumes from 1807 to 1814) and had 60,000 entries.
Numerous other dictionaries of the Polish language have been published since.
The ones following in Linde's path include the 110,000-entry ''Słownik języka polskiego'' published in
Wilno
Vilnius ( , ; see also #Etymology and other names, other names) is the capital and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the munic ...
in 1861 by a group of Polish scholars led by and the 270,000-entry ''Słownik języka polskiego'' edited by , and , published in several volumes from 1900 to 1927. After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, a major dictionary of the Polish language was the ''Słownik języka polskiego'' of
Witold Doroszewski, published in volumes from 1958 to 1969, which quickly became considered a new classic.
As of the early 21st century, the largest dictionary of the Polish language is the 50-volume ' (published from 1994 to 2005) edited by . Several newer dictionaries are published on the Internet and are freely accessible to the public; they include the ''Słownik języka polskiego'' at Polish
Wiktionary
Wiktionary ( , , rhyming with "dictionary") is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary of terms (including words, phrases, proverbs, linguistic reconstructions, etc.) in all natural languages and in a numbe ...
and the ' edited by of the (IJP PAN).
Specialized
There are also many
specialized dictionaries
A specialized dictionary is a dictionary that covers a relatively restricted set of phenomena. The definitive book on the subject (Cowie 2009) includes chapters on some of the dictionaries included below:
*synonyms
*pronunciations
*names (place na ...
in Polish. Some are focused on the Polish language, such as the
etymological
Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words a ...
''
Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego'' (from 1927, edited by
Aleksander Brückner
Aleksander Brückner (; 29 January 1856 – 24 May 1939) was a Polish scholar of Slavic languages and literatures (Slavistics), philologist, lexicographer and historian of literature. He is among the most notable Slavicists of the late 19th ...
); but many others focus on non-language topics, such as the
Polish Biographical Dictionary
''Polski Słownik Biograficzny'' (''PSB''; Polish Biographical Dictionary) is a Polish-language biographical dictionary, comprising an alphabetically arranged compilation of authoritative biographies of some 25,000 notable Poles and of foreigner ...
.
See also
*
History of Polish
The Polish language is a West Slavic language, and thus descends from Proto-Slavic, and more distantly from Proto-Indo-European. More specifically, it is a member of the Lechitic branch of the West Slavic languages, along with other languages sp ...
*
Polish proverbs
References
Further reading
*
External links
Słownik języka polskiegoat
Wiktionary
Wiktionary ( , , rhyming with "dictionary") is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary of terms (including words, phrases, proverbs, linguistic reconstructions, etc.) in all natural languages and in a numbe ...
Wielki słownik języka polskiegoat IJP PAN
Słownik polszczyzny XVI wieku(Dictionary of 16th century Polish language) at IJP PAN
Słownik języka polskiegoat
Polish Scientific Publishers PWN
Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN (''Polish Scientific Publishers PWN''; until 1991 ''Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe'' - ''National Scientific Publishers PWN'', PWN) is a Polish book publisher, founded in 1951, when it split from the Wydawnictwa Szkolne i ...
Słownik języka polskiego(edited by prof. Doroszewski, 1958–1969) at Polish Scientific Publishers PWN
*{{In lang, pl}
miejski.pl– Polish equivalent of the
Urban Dictionary
''Urban Dictionary'' is a crowdsourced English-language online dictionary for slang words and phrases. The website was founded in 1999 by Aaron Peckham. Originally, ''Urban Dictionary'' was intended as a dictionary of slang or cultural words ...
Polish language
15th-century establishments in Poland