NAZWY WYZNAWCÓW ISLAMU W POLSZCZYŹNIE XVI WIEKU
Names of followers of Islam in the 16th-century Polish

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to discuss the names given to followers of Islam against the names given to followers of sects and other religions in the 16th century in the context of their origin and textual extension. Its material basis is Słownik polszczyzny XVI wieku (Dictionary of the 16th-century Polish), both the elaborated volumes of the lexicon and the material from the index. There are 16 names referring to followers of Islam recorded there: alkoranista, beserman, bezermaniec, białogłowiec, bisurmaniec, bisurmanin, bursoman, mahomet, mahometan, mahometczyk, mahometysta, missurmanin, musulman, nowoobrzezaniec, turczyn, turek. The number arises, on the one hand, from the political and religious situation of that time and hence, from the topicality of the issue, and on the other hand, from the phonic acquisition of foreign lexemes, which usually came to Polish indirectly, through medium languages. The analysis of the material shows that the names were coined according to four patterns, which are analogous to those applied when creating other denominations. Their fates in the Polish language varied: some turned out to be ephemera coined by a given author, and the use of others went beyond the 16th century.

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