LASKA- CHICK, BABE OR BIRD?

One hears the term laska in Polish in reference to a young attractive female. Which English term would be closest: chick, babe or bird? Or maybe something else?

Could one say that laska made its appearance in colloquial Polish more or less when kociak and cizia went out?

I think either chick or babe, but to me laska seems as a derogative term. My husband calls me babe, and I think its cute. But if he would call me laska, I'd give him a dirty look and remind him we are not part of the crowd hanging around the polish "bloki".

For some reason laska to me seems like a slutty girl.

This is not true. Laska is a very harmless word and is not meant to be deragatory at all. It would translate into chick, at best.

hmmm... when a guy refers to a girl 'ale laska!' he means she's a pretty, sexy girl...

me and my girl friends say when we call each other 'cześć laska, co słychać?'
...
;)

That's what I'm referring to "ale laska" started out near polskie bloki, any time a sluttier, skankier dressed girl walked by... not necessarily pretty.

I would never use the word chick unless I was either talking about an avian creature before its adult plumage grows, or in some poor quality joke about meeting Ukrainian girl by cooking chicken and garlic in breadcrumbs.

What someone thinks when they hear laska is not going to be the same as someone else. I wouldn't know about laska. It does sound a bit like lass though, which couldn't be derogatory so long as you are talking about a female.

I won't call a girl laska then?

You probably shouldn't. The word also some pretty specific ..... connotations as well.
It's used to refer to oral pleasure received by a man and by itself can also refer to a specifically male protuberance...

The part where you state where the word started is certainly not true. The rest, if based on the first part may be pretty dubious too.

"Laska" in Polish and in reference to a girl was coined sometime in the late 1960's and became mainstream in mid 1970's after a Polish comedy performer (forgot the name - Andrzej Rosiewicz?) sang a parody of a song from a 1964 Czech movie under the title Láska nebeská (Heavenly Love). So "laska" in colloquial Polish came to mean "love" or a pretty girl. There were no negative connotations at the time.

The word laska also meant a cane/walking stick and indeed, it was used in street Polish to denote penis. Slang changes very fast so I can't vouch for the innocence of the word "laska" in Poland today, but to the ears of those Poles I know, though still colloquial, it is certainly not impolite. As a matter of fact my wife, whom I never heard say the most popular Polish word (kurwa) has no problem with using this word. I'm not even sure I heard her say dupa at all. (dupa is a very mild word). If she uses a word, Polish or English, then the word is boringly deprived of any spice, but not necessarily of humor.

There is also an adjective created from "laska" - laskowata/laskowaty, i.e. slangish for pretty/attractive and we use it at home pretty much on a regular basis. Jokingly, we will describe a car as "laskowaty".

But again, I haven't lived in Poland in a long while.

Offtop: In Czech "laska" means "love" to the best of my memory. In Russian either "foreplay" (he-he) or "weasel" (animal).

It certainly depends on the context and the whereabouts in the English-speaking world... Can't just directly translate it.

"Chick" is more of an American English term for a bird. But bird is also an euphemism for bitch (suka) among males. And babe is commonly used to refer to younger girls [or someone at the same age as you] in everyday language round'ere with no derogatory meaning (i.e. "Hello, babe, you alright?" - is nearly an equivalent to "Hello, darling, you alright?", or better: "Hello, love, you alright?"). It's not offensive, has no "sluttish" tone as in American English.

Laska means a good looking woman, walking stick and blow job.

Laska = Babe