Ambulans displacing karetka - similar meaning of different Polish words?

Is it true that the term 'ambulans' has replaced or is largely replacing 'karetka pogotowia'? Do people now say 'trzeba wezwać ambulans' or is it still 'trzeba wezwać pogotowie'?

In Poland these days one can see a vehicle with SNALUBMA wirtten across their front so motorists see AMBULANS in their rear-view mirrors. And yet in PRL, the most common use of ambulans was ambulans pocztowy (postal van).

this one.


No. Both are in use.

If anything, ambulans is more old-fashioned.

An ambulance is something bigger than karetka pogotowia. In the case of a heart attack, they would most propably send an ambulance (and it is highly possible that those have by now replaced all the karetki once in use which were rather small cars), but I wouldn't even care to work out the difference. They will be sending whatever will suit them, I shall simply be using the term "karetka".

I thought it was to assimilate to international terminology. In TV news reports I have even seen Israeli ambulances which (besides their Hebew hen-scratching) have the backwards word AMBULANCE thereon.

I don't know about them young 'uns, but "wezwać pogotowie" sounds like what most people would say most of the time.

The main thing that's changed is what's written on them, which is probably intended for maximum comprhension (including non-Polish drivers). Even the dimmest monolingual anglophones should be able to understand AMBULANS (thought judging by some brits I've known I might have to amend that....).

Merged: Ambulans or karetka?

In PRL an ambualnce was universally referred to as a karetka pogotowia (emergency van), and the word ambulans was largely reserved for ambulans pocztowy (postal van). Now the word AMBULANS is prominently displayed on medical-emergency vehicles. Probably by analogy to other languages. Anyone recall exactly when the change-over occurred?

Know of any other such changes during the post-1989 transition?

Interesting thread Polonius, I'd like to know more examples too.

I spotted this a while ago -



I've never seen "świetlica dla podróżnych" anywhere else - always just poczekalnia. Is it the same thing, or was this something different in previous times? It's a sign in the train station in Czeremcha.

I've never seen that phrasing either. Since a świetlica can be a communtiy room, day room or after-school club (place where kids stay before being collected by parents after school), I presume that other than the benches or chairs of a typcial waiting room there may also be books and periodicals, maybe comptuers and board-games available.


Also "trzeba wezwać karetkę".
Maybe AMBULANS is seen written more often nowadays than POGOTOWIE. I've never seen KARETKA POGOTOWIE on the sides of an ambulance.

Because ambulans sounds more modern - more wordly and dignified. Karetka is an old word which may be associated to an old era. This is the new Poland, and the new words - of course mostly borrowed from the more wealthy and better West...

These prefixes (pro-, anty-, post-) did not emerge at the turn of 1989/90 but seem to be used a lot more these days in political jargon and media speak. On the other hand definitely post-1989 is the extensive use in advertising and commercial packaging of mega, ultra, plus, optima, etc., typically added to an existing product to suggest that it is "new and improved".

Re hot, attractive young females the term laska (walking stick) is widely used. Of course, there is also the less polite form d*pa. But only older folk use such slang expressions as cizia, babka or kociak, roughly translatable as bird, gal and sex kitten respectively.

@up
not "cizia" "babka" "kociak" or "laska" but lachon ;)

Lachon appears to have come from lacha, the augmentative form of laska. But why was a stick chosen in the first place? The prevalent version of feminine beauty has not been the Twiggy look for decades. The same laska is used is for the male organ. wonder if there's any connection.

Other changes in the language include:
**dwa w jednym: a very un-Polish borrowing from English (plentiful in adverts)
**odkryj (direct trsnaltion of many German (entdeck) and English (discover) adverts.
**Od Wedel (from Wedel); proper Polish would be od Wedla or firmy Wedel.
**ciężko powiedzieć: proper Polish = trudno powiedzieć: a calque of it's hard to

I think it's rather for the foreigners. Ambulans is a word which is similar to its equivalents in many languages, including English. And it's shorter than "karetka pogotowia". "Karetka" only sounds very unofficial and it's in fact a diminutive for "kareta" - "carriage" (a type of a horse vehicle). Before the era of cars, ambulances were also horse vehicles, and probably hence the word "karetka" used now for ambulances.

The same is on the firefighters' cars, where it's written STRAŻ only, not STRAŻ POŻARNA, as it's shorter and more visible. Another thing is that they are now dealing with a lot of issues different from fires, but they are still called "straż pożarna", so this is definitely NOT the reason not to put the word "pożarna" on the cars.

I would say that in Polish the word "karetka" or "karetka pogotowia" is used much more frequently than "ambulans".


Computers rather not in these times, but a TV could be there.

I think the term "ambulans pocztowy" is rather old-fashioned and no longer used (although maybe the post people still are using it on a daily basis), but... a news from 2002 where it's used:

wiadomosci.wp.pl/kat,1348,title,Aresztowani-za-napad-na-ambulans-pocztowy,wid,224353,wiadomosc.html?ticaid=115821

A more interesting case: panoramio.com/photo/57345101
"Postój dorożek samochodowych" from 1960's. I don't know how to translate the word "dorożka" to English, but it was a horse equivalent of a taxi. So the taxis were initially called "dorożki samochodowe". I think the change had to take place in the 70's.

I would say 'carriage' (my all purpose word for horse drawn transportation) but google translate doesn't agree....

Also I remember in the early 90s there was a flurry of usage of the word 'stacja' instead of 'dworzec' but that seemed to die out (mercifully enough).

Isn't there actually a difference? I learnt that stacja refers to the entire area, whereas dworzec refers rather to the building used for passengers. For instance - you would never call a freight station "dworzec", while it is quite obviously "stacja".

Could be wrong, though...


The most horrific one is "za free", which is turning up everywhere.

I remember one year the printed train schedule for Poznan had some reference to "stacja pociągów pasażerskich" (whereas the previous year just had 'dworzec'). And no one in Poland asks how they can get to stacja (at least I've never heard anyone ask that).

Re: Ambulance/Pogotowie
Very often you can hear the word 'ERKA', as on some of the ambulances, the letter 'R' is very prominent.

The "R" stands fro RATUNKOWY (rescue ambulance). That's the with a doctor or paramedic on board and fitted with emergency life-saving gear -- oxygen, drips, defibrillators. The other kind is the karetka transportowa, used to transport a patient to hospital.