Polish Months
Today we’ll have another short Polish lesson. Don’t worry, it won’t be about some complex grammatical constructions but about etymology (the origin of words). I’m sure that you’ve already noticed that the names of the months in most European languages are very similar but in Polish (and some other languages) they sound completely different. In this blog post, I would like to show you what is the meaning behind the names of Polish months. I hope it’ll help you remember these names better.
First of all, the Polish word for ‘month’ is miesiąc, historically this word also meant the Moon but has lost its meaning and now it’s used only to refer to months. Importantly, unlike in English, Polish names of the months start with a small letter.
The first month of the year is January - styczeń, there are, of course, many theories as to the exact origin but the most plausible ones are that it comes from the word tyka, which means ‘a pole for supporting plants’ or the verb siekać - ‘to chop’ in modern Polish. The first etymology was suggested because the farmers used to produce poles for supporting plants in winter, and the second one refers to cutting down trees which was another common activity at that time of the year. A bit of grammar - if something happens in January, we say w styczniu.
The second month - February is luty. It is an Old Polish adjective meaning 'severe'. Those of you who stayed in Poland in February know that, indeed, the cold weather in this month can be… severe. As the old proverb goes: idzie luty, obuj buty (‘February’s coming, put on your boots’). Attention! I’ve just mentioned that the word luty originates from an adjective, therefore it has a slightly different form, if something happens in February, we say w lutym.
Marzec - March is one of the two months that got their name directly from Latin martius, that’s why its Polish name resembles (at least a little bit) its English counterpart. The unpredictability of March weather is reflected in a proverb: w marcu jak w garncu - ‘in March feels like inside a pot’, in fact, some years March can be surprisingly warm. As you can see in this proverb ‘in March’ in Polish is w marcu (the ‘z’ gets lost!).
The next month is easy, April - kwiecień. You probably guessed it, it comes from the word for flower - kwiat and a similar sounding verb - kwitnąć - ‘to bloom’. I believe this one doesn’t require any further explanations, in April everything blossoms. But also this month is known for its unpredictability - kwiecień-plecień, bo przeplata, trochę zimy, trochę lata, meaning something like ‘April is a weaver, because it weaves together a bit of winter and a bit of the summer’. While it’s quite rare nowadays, I remember that in the past it could still snow in early April! Attention, kwiecień has a tricky sound change, ‘in April’ in Polish is w kwietniu.
The fifth month of the year - May is another easy one, in Polish it’s simply maj and as you might’ve guessed it also has Latin origin. Also, its declension is very regular - in May is w maju.
The origin of the Polish name of June isn’t traced back to something pleasant. The word czerwiec comes from the word for maggot - czerw. Maggots are reportedly very active during that time of the year and they are used to produce red dye. Red, if you remember from our courses is czerwony, so everything makes sense! To say ‘in June’ in Polish is simply w czerwcu.
Lipa in Polish means ‘linden tree’, a tree that is very common and very present in Polish literature. Linden trees blossom in July, therefore this month is named lipiec. From the vocabulary you’ve learned in this blog post you can say that ‘linden trees blossom in July’ - w lipcu kwitną lipy.
In August it’s time for harvest. Traditionally sickles (sierp in Polish) were used to reap the crops, therefore the month has been named sierpień. Just like in the case of the other words of the kind you need to pay attention to the ‘falling ie’, ‘in August’ in Polish is w sierpniu.
Another month named after a plant that blossoms in a given period is the month of September - wrzesień. The plant I’m talking about is heather, in Polish wrzos. By now you should know how to say ‘in September’ in Polish… that’s right, we wrześniu.
The next month, that seems particularly difficult to pronounce is październik (October). Its name comes from the word for dry stems of plants like flax (collected in autumn) - paździerz (I had to look it up myself in the Polish dictionary!). At least the declension is very easy in the case of this month - ‘in October’ is simply w październiku.
What happens in November? Autumn comes and the leaves fall off the trees. 'Leaf' is liść and to 'fall' is padać (just like in pada deszcz - ‘it’s raining’), therefore the name was called listopad. When you want to talk about something that happened in November don’t forget about the small sound change - w listopadzie.
Last but not least, the year concludes with the month of December - grudzień. The name comes from the word gruda which means ‘lump’, probably meaning the lumps of frozen soil, so common in December. To say ‘in December’ in Polish is simply w grudniu.
I hope that the names of Polish months, so different from their English equivalents, make more sense to you now. As you can see, many of them originate from archaic words, or words that you’re not very likely to use in everyday life but I hope that thanks to this post you’ll be able to make some associations and remembering the names of the months will be easier for you.
David, OLS Community Manager – Polish