Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


Correct me if I'm wrong. I always thought the Irish patonymics were O' O'Brien) and Mc (McHenry), whilst Fitz as in Fitzpartick originally meant Patrick's out-of-wedlock son.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


Poland's historically lopsided social structrue is what's wrong, and its vestiges are still with us. Poland has traditonally been mainly a land of peasant farmers with no more than 10% nobilty and almost no indigenous bugher class. The cities were largly planned, designed, run and developed by Germans, Jews dominated crafts and commerce and peasants brought their produce in from the surroundign countryside. There is nothing wrong with peasants or farmers, except that it is not they who by and large build castles, cathedrals and urban infrastrutcure, compose symphonies, sculpt statues, invent things, cultivate urban crafts or build industry -- the middle classes do.

Since in contemporary times many if not most average Poles believe that all the interesting, colourful, trendy and sophisticated things must be imported, they tend to be ashamed of whatever they regard as home-spun, folksy and inidgenously Polish but readily adopt foreign imports from Valentine's hearts to pagan-rooted Hallowe'en artefacts. By contrast, Polish house-to-house rounds by caroler-masqueraders done up as an angel, devil, grim reaper, soldier, gipsy, Three Kings and other familiar denizens of Old Poland are encounterede nowadays mainly in the remote countryside, since the custom is perceived as rural and therefore unsophisticated. It was widely practised in pre-war Polish cities. Even though pocket-money-starved youngsters could cash in on a custom in which householders offer them a few złots along the way, it has not caught on.

Of course, neithger have the Tescos, Carrefours and other Biedronkas that promote plastic pumpkins and Hallowe'en ever marketed any Polish carolling gear, as far as I know.

Life / Why there is always around a horrible smell of sweat in Poland [220]


I beat my breast. Will do!

Stick to the topic, please

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


Can you honestly say you already knew all those nicknames?

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


I should have said "English". From a strictly sociolinguistic perspective, what is the nickname Scots, Irish and Welsh use for the English? This has nothing do with insulting anyone, just intellectual curiosity. If interested, I can tell you what slang terms are used in the US for different ethnicities: Polack (Pole), Kraut, Squarehead (German), Dago, Wop, Greaser, Guinea (Italian), Kike, Hebe (Jew), Bohunk (Czech but also Hungarians and at times all Central East Europeans including Poles), Ukie (Ukrainian), N-word, Jungle Bunny, Jigaboo, Zigaboo, Spade (Negro), Spic or Spick (Mexican), Cannuck (Canadian), Scandihoovian (Norwedgian, Dane, Swede)...

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


Are those silly jokes taking the stuffings out of the Irish still circulating in Pommyland? BTW do the Irish have a pejorative tag for Brits? Ameicans say Limey, in Oz it's Pommies. Wonder what the Scots say? You know copper wire was invented by Scotsmen...trying to pull a penny out of each other's hands!

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


But did she know that? BTW not all Yanks* are as ignorant as you try to make out. That's just over 20 yards or about 71 feet.

*The word Yankee has different meanings depending on context:
1) Americans in general esp. when used by foreigners.
2) Northerners as opposed to southerners (the old Union v old Confederacy) in the USA, or those living above or below the Mason-Dixon line.
3) In New England, esp. Boston area -- WASPs as opposed to Irish and other Americans.
4) The name of NY's famous baseball team.

Life / Why there is always around a horrible smell of sweat in Poland [220]


Maybe she had the runs and was not within easy reach of a loo. What else could the poor lady do but "feed the bushes"?

Life / Why there is always around a horrible smell of sweat in Poland [220]


How do you know she was an American? Most Americans are exaggeratedly hygiene minded and require extreme privacy for bodily fucntions and changing.


Maybe she didn't want anyone to recognise her (ha-ha!)

Life / Why Polish people should be proud of being Polish? [370]

Merged: Are you proud to be Polish? If so why?

Some people say: What is there to be proud of? One has no control over what nationality one happens to be born into. Others are genuinely proud of their ancestry and cultural heritage. If you are amongst them, please give a reason or mutliple reasons why. Serdecznie dziękuję.

Life / Why there is always around a horrible smell of sweat in Poland [220]


My cousin recently went to India on business the first time and was aghast at the filth. He lived in a palace of a hotel, but there was a garbage dump just outside his window. And he saw not only "sacred" cows but Indians defecating right in the streets. And that "Holy River" -- people "purifying" themselves by bathing in water polluted by cremated and partially cremated human remains!

Genealogy / Is your line of the Polish family noble? [74]

Yes, there were nobles amongst the bearers of the Habowski surname. For details, please contact me.

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [240]


Low German is pretty close to Dutch!

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

Mr Gajl has responded to my query by saying that "in his research he has found Mazur and Mazurek surnames as gentry-related but their coats of arms remain unknown. If a company selling coats fo arms says otherwise but there is no proof, then it should be taken with a grain of salt."

Szanowny Panie, u mnie we wszystkich wersjach herbarza jest nazwisko Mazur i Mazurek jako szlacheckie. Przy obu jednak herb nie jest znany. Jeżeli firma, której celem istnienia jest sprzedawanie herbów informuje o herbie Dołęga to sytuacja wydaje mi się podobna do pytania do sprzedawcy o jakość towaru. Dopóki nie będzie podane i sprawdzone źródło informacji to jest ona niewiarygodna.

Jestem mało restrykcyjny w wypadku podania herbów mi nieznanych przez rodziny o ile status rodu jest pewny. Ale w wypadku tak jawnie komercyjnym to nie potraktuję tego poważnie.

Serdecznie pozdrawiam
Tadeusz Gajl


Do not lose faith. In my conrtinued exchange with Mr Gajl, I was using his 2003 armorial. He has since put out a 2007, 2011 and 2016 editions which contain thousands of additional names. We cannot rule out that Mazur may eventually get linked to a c-o-a.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


I'm checking on it at my end and will share any resutls I find. BTW where are you based?

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


According to the armorial of Tadeusz Gajl, regarded as the most authoritative to date, no Mazur has ever made it into the ranks of the szlachta (Polish gentry). There were nobles amongst the bearers of the Mazurkiewicz (son of Mazurek) surname, in fact two separate noble lines belonging to the Pobóg and Łabędź clans. Noble bearers of the Mazurkowicz surname had an own-name coat of arms. It showed a key overlaying thee flowers. However, heraldry is being constantly updated thanks to continued research so eventually a well-born Mazur line may be discovered.


Here are the surnames whose noble lines belonged to the Dołęga clan. Mazur is conspicuously absent:

M
Macharski, Machciński, Machczyński, Mackun, Makowiecki, Malcewicz, Małkowicz-Sutocki, Marcinowski, Mazierkiewicz, Mazowiecki, Mażejko, Mączyński, Mąkowiecki, Mąstowicz, Mchowski, Mdzewski, Melicz, Melitz, Mellitz, Mikulski, Milcz, Miostowt, Mlicki, Mohylewski, Mohylowski, Mohyłowski, Moniuszko, Monstowicz, Monstwild, Montwid, Montwit, Mostowicz, Mostowski, Mostowt, Moszczeński, Możejko, Mycielski, Myśliborski.

Genealogy / Popular Polish First Names? [152]


In the US Polonia Chester was the traditional replacement for Czesław on a sound-similar basis. Similarly those baptised Mieczysław became Mitchell. Władysław > Walter, Stanisław > Stanley.

Genealogy / Popular Polish First Names? [152]

Stanley, Walter, Mitchell, John, Andrew, Dennis, Michael, Thomas, Casimir, Gregory, Edward,
Mary, Wanda, Anne, Helen, Victoria, Margaret, Gloria, Angela, Beatrice, Stella, Christine

News / Cardinal Józef Glemp has died aged 83. Cardinal Macharski too. [10]

Merged: Cardinal Macharski dead at 89

Cardinal Macharski, archbishop of Kraków from 1979 to 2005, has died.
in hospital, where he had been taken after he losing consciousness and suffering innjuries in a fall. During a visit to Poland for World Youth Days last week, Pope Francis visited and blesssed the comatose cardinal at the Kraków University Hospital.

USA, Canada / Poles in America: How do you pronounce your Polish surname? [128]


Interestingly, the Grycel surname exists in Poland but the Grycelski one does not. It's source could have been the word gryka (buckwheat) or the first name Grzegorz (Gregory).

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


JANOWSKI: Probably originated as a toponymic nick to identify a native of some locality such as Janów or Janowo (Johnsville, Johnston). Less likely but not impossible is the patronymic option where Janowski emerged to indicate the "son fo John" (English Johnson). Some 500 Janowskis live in the Gdańsk area, also known as Kashub country (Google Kashubs for details).


Ye,rs, my maternal grandfather went to the US as Jan Kupczak, but while there changed it to the more noble-sounding Kupczyński.

Language / Dziadzia / Babcia - help me with spelling/pronunciation [81]


Babunia or (when addresed directly) Babuniu (vocative).
Dziadziuś or (when addressed directly) Dziadziusiu.

Genealogy / Any one know anything of Koss surname? [22]


KOSS: probably a variant of Kos which is the Polish word for blackbird. In Poland its stronghold (about 900 users) is in the Baltic coastal area known as Kashubia. In Germany there are some 1,600 users of the Koss surname. In Poland Kos is far more common (about 6,000 bearers).

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

This is probably apocryphal, but I once heard that Nowicki was a name given to Jewish converts to Catolicism and that it originated as "Nowy Icek" (Icek beign a common Jeiwsh first name). But since surnames ending in -ski as well as -cki are ususally of toponymic origin, Nowicki probably originated to indicate a native of one of several villages in Poland called Nowica or Nowice.The names of those localities may be roughly translated as Newton, Newbury, Newville or something along those lines.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


RŻEWSKI: root-word rżeć ( to neigh liek a horse); probably toponymic nick from Rżewo, a village in today's Belarus, formerly Poland. The village could be roughly translated as Neighville (doesn't sound half bad, eh?), so Adam (for instance) Rżewski would have originated to indentify some christened Adam as hailing from Neighville.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


Tanak could be a hypocoristic (pet) form of the Ukrainian first name Atanas, the way Bill is from William and Meg is from Margaret.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

These sound not Polish but Ukrainian. In Poland there is the surname Spierczyk.
It could have originated from the verb spierać się (to argue, quarrel). A quarrelsome fellow might have got nicknamed Spier or Spiera and the patronymic -czyk ending would have produced Spierczyk = son of Spier.

The equivalent Ukrainian verb is cперечатись, so it migth have worked the same way in that language as well.

News / Russian criticism of Poland - Soviet war memorial removal [332]


Closer to the ornate Chrysler Bldg.

News / Russian criticism of Poland - Soviet war memorial removal [332]


The Red army were like barbaric hordes rmapagign theri way through Poland and Germany, looting, killing, raping and destroying what they couldn't steal. An uncle in the Polish army around Grodno said when the Red Army invaded they stripped a manor house of everything they could remove and carry, raped the servant girls and led their horses up and down the marble stairs to destroy them.

When Churchill complained to Stalin, the moustachioed, pock-faced evil dwarf replied: "What's the problem if after gruelling frontline combat and long marches a soldier takes a little souvenir for himself or has some fun with a woman?" No, this was no 20th-century army. It could be compared only to the hordes of Atilla the Hun.

News / Russian criticism of Poland - Soviet war memorial removal [332]


Rather the elitist PO reflected the commie view of the red bourgeoisie and the lupenproletarian masses. A communist lexicon for communist party leaders informed that: cognac is the drink of the working class, sipped by the lips of their leaders.

Koniak to napój klasy robotniczej spijany ustami jej przywódców.