| dc.description.abstract | In the 21st century Polish language, many of the archaic words and expressions of yesteryear
still function. In spite of their relative frequency (occurrences in familiar folk or pop songs),
they often remain incomprehensible to the vast majority of language users. The ignorance of
the lexeme’s denotational definition is usually the reason. Often, the context in which the word
occurs is misleading. The lexeme prząśniczka has always meant ‘part of the reel, narrow small
board to which the yarn is attached’, rather than ‘a woman spinner, a person performing the
activity of spinning’. The adjective szparki is largely forgotten today, with its archaic meaning
‘quick, jaunty, perky’. In the past, people would say that ‘an old man still walked szparki’ (that
is ‘fast’) or he was a szparki fellow. The adverb szparko ‘firmly, strongly, heavily’ was also
used. A contemporary songwriter makes a clever use of the archaic adjective in one of the
texts for Maryla Rodowicz entitled Szparka sekretarka (literally: ‘A lively, efficient secretary’).
Meanwhile the lyrics were mostly misinterpreted as obscene probably due to the existence of
the homonymous noun szparka (Eng. slit, gap). | en_EN |
