Etymologically
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polka

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 17 October 2026 at 18:13. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /pɔl.ka/[1]

Forms

polka f (plural polkas)[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Czech polka, through German.[2][3][4][1] The dance came from Bohemia; it was known in Prague in 1835, in Vienna in 1839, in Paris in 1840 and in London in 1842.[2][3] The Czech word is either an alteration of půlka (“half; half-step”), from the short steps of the dance,[2][3][4][5] or the noun “Polka” “Polish woman”, used out of sympathy for the oppressed Poles.[2][3][6][7]

The GLLF and the Grand Robert make it a Polish word instead, from Polish polska (“a kind of dance”), from polski (“Polish”).[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rozier dates the arrival of the polka in Paris dance halls to 1842;[2][6] the TLFi's first quotation is from Balzac (1844), for the dance.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The lively two-step dance was a craze in the middle of the 19th century and led dancing masters to launch the mazurka and the redowa.[2][3] The verb polker “to dance the polka” is from 1844–1845, and in 1850 a polka was also a dandy.[3][6][10]

For reasons unknown, pain polka (1881) is a flat loaf with a crust scored in squares or lozenges.[3][2] The word also named a stone-cutter's pick (1876) and a small wheelbarrow in mushroom quarries (1907), perhaps from the worker's movements.[2][3] In slang, before 1930, a polka was a gangster's girlfriend.[3]

Timeline

  • 1842 – The polka reaches Paris dance halls.[2][6]
  • 1844 – The dance (Balzac); polquer, later polker.[2][3]
  • 1850 – Un polka, a dandy.[10]
  • 1876 – A stone-cutter's pick.[2]
  • 1878 – First recorded by the Académie.[2]
  • 1881 – Pain polka.[2]
  • 1907 – A small wheelbarrow used in mushroom quarries.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A polka, a lively round dance in two-four time, danced in couples.[4][5]
  2. The music for this dance.[4][5]

Adjective

  1. Pain polka: a flattened loaf with a crust scored in a lattice pattern.[4][5]

Word family

  • polker

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 20, 43b
  8. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF