Robbers about themselves – the history of thieves’ names in the criminal sociolect (on material from the 19th century) Cover Image

O sobie samych – z historii przestępczych nazw złodziei (na materiale z XIX wieku)
Robbers about themselves – the history of thieves’ names in the criminal sociolect (on material from the 19th century)

Author(s): Jarosław Pacuła
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie
Keywords: lexis; sociolect; thieves' jargon; history of language; etymology

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the history of Polish criminal jargon. The author presented 68 names of thieves. He extracted linguistic material from 19th‑century texts, but some of the collected units are much older. The author presented the provenance of the names and characterized the material in formal and semantic terms. The author drew attention to the territorial diversity of names – their functioning in the speech of criminals operating in different partitions and their fate after the unification of various parts of Poland. Among the names discussed are, for example: andrus, klawiszarz, pajęczeniarz, szpringer, marwicher, jold.

  • Issue Year: 2023
  • Issue No: 18
  • Page Range: 281-298
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish