Władysław Kopaliński (real name Władysław Jan Stefczyk; November 14, 1907 – October 5, 2007) was a Polish

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries. * The ...

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

and

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

. He was a prolific author and winner of numerous awards for his work.

Life

He was born in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

as Jan Sterling, a son of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

parents Stanisław Sterling and Regina Willer. Kopaliński was a renowned

and contributed much to modern knowledge of the origins of the

Polish language Polish (, , or simply , ) is a West Slavic languages, West Slavic language of the Lechitic languages, Lechitic subgroup, within the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is written in the Latin script. It is primarily spo ...

. He was considered an authority on the origins of Polish words, leading to a common expression, "Look it up in Kopaliński." His Polish

dictionaries A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

include ''Dictionary of Myths and Cultural Traditions'' and the ''Dictionary of Symbols''. His most famous work was the ''Dictionary of Words and Phrases of Foreign Origin''. An unabridged version of the latter dictionary has been published on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. Kopaliński also authored several books which are not dictionaries, including ''125 Fairy Stories To Tell the Children'', ''Lexicon of Love Themes'', and the ''Book of Quotations from Polish Belles-Lettres''. Kopaliński was a member of the Polish Writers' Society. He also wrote a regular

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

in '' Życie Warszawy'', ran a Polish

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

station, and translated

English-language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

books into Polish. Kopaliński died in

on October 5, 2007 at the age of 99.

Notes

External links

Władysław Kopaliński obituary
1907 births 2007 deaths Writers from Warsaw People from Warsaw Governorate Polish lexicographers 20th-century Polish Jews Polish male writers Polish United Workers' Party members 20th-century lexicographers {{Poland-bio-stub

Life

See also

Notes

External links