Polack

Definition: 1. usually disparaging: a Pole or person of Polish extraction

(from 20^th Century)

2. (Mainly Jewish) a Jew whose family comes from Poland

3. a Pole, Russian, Czech dealing in Polish Jewesses: white

slavers’ cant from 20^th century.

4. an immigrant from Poland

Other forms used : Pollack or Pollack or Pollock or Pollock or Polak or

polak.

Synonims: Pole, Pollack, Stash, Stella, Bohunk, Hunky, Hunkie (all

derogatory).

Etymology:

The word comes from Polish word "Polak" which means ‘a Pole.’ It came to English language probably directly from French "Polaque<Polish Polack" or from German "Polack< a Pole." Most probably American usage was influenced by German example. The first notation in the Oxford English Dictionary comes from a letter by Sir Philip Sidney from November 27, 1574. Shakespeare used it in "Hamlet" (" You from the Polack wars, and you from England, Are here arrived" – V. ii. 1601-02). In the mid-seventeenth century the modern polite form, a Pole, started to be used, as noted by OED in1656. Americans have used the word Polack insultingly since the end of the nineteenth century (1898). The remaining of the word as an insult is parallel to the use of the old but nonstandard Injun for Indian and Nigger for Negro.

Usage:

It is curious that a word Polack is pejorative in English language even though it is the Polish word for a Pole. The term was popularized by a TV show "All in the Family." Archie Bunker (1971-1983) referred often to his son-in-law Mike Stivic as "Polack pinko meathead." The show had a huge success, and it popularized the term through the usage of Polish jokes. An example joke comes from Mad magazine’s 1973 parody of Johnny Carson’s "Amazing Carnak" mentalist routine:

CARNAK: The answer is "Dope Ring!"

ANNOUNCER: And what is the question?

CARNAK: Describe six Polacks sitting in a circle.

Long before Americans started using the term in an insulting way, it was already well-established in Europe. Karl Marx was one of the people that used it regularly. He once wanted to sue the London newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, which he said was owned by "polack Jews" (letter to Freidrich Engels, 02/09/1860). H. E. F. Donohue used it in "Gentlemen’s Game" ("He gets onto cursing all of them …the wops and the polacks and the niggers").

Examples of usage:

■ a Pole

◦1574 Sidney Let. 27 Nov. in Wks. (1968) III. 99 "The Polakes hartily repente their so fur fetcht election."

◦ 1599 Sandys Europe Spec. (1632) 192 "Then for his Catholikes the Polakers, they clearly slip collar."

◦ 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. 127 "The last of these fower virtues the Polacks want, that is, celerite."

◦ 1602 Shakespeare Hamlet, V.ii, IV.iv, II.ii.

◦ 1609 Middleton Sir R. Shirley Wks. (Bullen) VIII. 307 "He was received with great magnificence…both of the Polack himself and of his people."

◦ 1657 North Plutarch, Add. Lives (1676) 80, "The Moscovites discomfited by the Polacks in the battle of Orsa."

◦ 1895 Funk’s Standard Dictionary, "Polack, same as Pole."

◦ 1913 Industrial Worker 12 June 4/2, "The Polock, the Jew, the Irish, the Negro, stood together like a stone wall."

◦ 1922 M. F. Liddell in Contemporary Rev., Dec. 770 "Danzing fears and hates the ‘Polacks’ and still more the French."

◦ 1933 S. K. Padover Let Day Perish 140 "You cowardly little sneak! It’s craven pups like you that make the Polacks trample on us! If we Jews would learn to …kill…like they do, the - Polacks would grovel at our feet!"

■ A Jew from Poland

◦ 1834 Manch. Old Hebrew Congregation Acct. Bk in B. Williams Making of Manchester Jewry (1976) iii. 71 "Given him the Polack for leaving town."

◦ 1909 Cent. Dictionary, "Polack, a name given to the Jews of the Polish provinces, by their Lithuanian co-religionists."

◦ 1971 M. A. Shulvass From East to West i. 23 "It is hard to arrive at any accurate estimate of the numbers of Jews who emigrated westward in this period…The strongest indication that they came in considerable numbers is in the fact that the nickname Pollack was current both in the Germanies and in the Hapsburg monarchy."

■ Polish immigrant (N. Amer. usually disparaging)

◦ 1898 F. P. Dunne Mr. Dooley in Peace & War 234 "’Well,’ said Mr. Dooley, ‘ye’re thoughts on this subject is inthrestin’, but not conclusive, as Dorsey said to th’ Pollack, that thought he cud lick him.’"

◦ 1900 Congress. Rec. 7 Feb. 1625/2, "I have some Polacks in my district, and …the blood of Pulaski, the brave Pole who fell at Savannah in the defense of American liberty, has never been avenged."

◦ 1922 E. E. Cummings Enormous Room iv. 61 "Get out of the way you damn Polak!"

◦ 1944 Sun (Baltimore) 2 Aug. 2/3 "’You know, I sure did hate to shoot him, said the sergeant, ‘Because he might have been a Polack, but he wouldn’t stop.’"

◦ 1952 F. L. Allen Big Change iii. 53 "They were scornfully known as Dagoes, Polacks, Hunkies, Kikes."

◦ 1965 P. De Vries Let me count Ways vii. 101 "I now recognized him as a blond Polak I had seen around town."

◦ 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 26v June 1/3 "The Crusher’s a clean-living Polack from Milwaukee who don’t truck with no drugs or bad women."

Works Cited:

Aylo John, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Slang. New York: Oxford

University Press, 1998.

Beale Paul, ed. A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. New

York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1984.

Chapman Robert L. Ph. D., ed. New Dictionary of American Slang. New

York : Harper and Row, Publishers, 1986.

Mathews Mitford M., ed. A Dictionary of Americanism on Historical

Principles. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1951.

Rawson Hugh. Wicked Words. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1989.

Rhymezone Rhyming Dictionary and Thesaurus Online:

Room Adrian, ed. The Cassell’s Dictionary of Word Histories. New York:

Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 1999.

Simpson J. A. and E. S. C. Weiner, eds. The Oxford English Dictionary

Vol. II, Second Edition, Claredon Press, Oxford.