Re: zydowski

[Robert A. Rothstein <rar...>]

r l reid wrote:

> I just asked a coworker who is a fluent Polish speaker about the word and she
> got nothing off it.  However she was raised in the US and is not
> particularly old.
>
> The fact that by itself it suggests nothing tells me the "owski" suffix 
> doesn't
> mean much by itself.

        "Zyd" (with a superscript dot on the "Z") is the Polish word for "Jew" 
(as
a member of a nationality, parallel to "Polak" ['Pole'], "Niemiec" ['German']
etc.).  With a small initial letter it means "Jew" as a member of a religious
community (parallel to, e.g., "katolik").  The adjective "Jewish" in either 
meaning
is "zydowski" (with the same superscript dot on the "z".)  The word can also be
used as a noun meaning "Jewish dance" (a shortening of "zydowski taniec").

Bob Rothstein

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