Historical linguist on grzeczny (‘polite’) and grzeczność (‘politeness’)

Walczak, Bogdan

doi:10.17651/POLON.35.7

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Tytuł: Historical linguist on grzeczny (‘polite’) and grzeczność (‘politeness’)

Abstrakt:

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’.