ZMIENNE LOSY TOWARZYSZA. WĘDRUJĄC PO SŁOWNIKACH...
Different nature of a companion. Searching through dictionaires...

Summary/Abstract: The article is an attempt to reconstruct, on the basis of language dictionaires, the history of a word towarzysz (companion), starting from the 15th-century notions in Old Polish Dictionary up to The Universal Polish Dictionary. Originally, this word meant ‛kompan (comrade), druh (companion), przyjaciel (friend)’, ‛a person that stays with someone in one place or situation’. Particular expansion of towarzysz (companion), as we can judge after registers of new connections in dictionaries, occurs in 19th century. The extralinguistic reality of 20th century (the spread of socialist idea in Europe, The October Revolution, the origin of PRL-Polish People’s Republic) resulted in semantic modifications – towarzysz (companion) started to fulfil a titular-addressee function in party circles. The remaining part of the society used this word rather quotably with different marking. The following political changes (regain of freedom, accession to EU) could not restore to towarzysz (companion) its former status.

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