Duma i pycha: Pride and deliciousness in Polish

Abstract

This article seeks to answer two puzzling questions regarding the lexical domain of PRIDE in the Polish language. First, how the words duma and dumny came to mean ‘pride’ and ‘proud’, while equivalent words in other Slavic languages have meanings related to thinking and speaking. Second, how the words pycha and pyszny, whose original meanings were ‘excessive pride’, ‘vainglory’, and ‘haughty’, conceited, came to mean something delicious and delicious. Using data from linguistic corpora from different epochs in the history of Polish, I argue that at the beginning of the 16th century, a valorization of pride took place. Increased selfawareness made it possible for people to take pride in their achievements, previously seen as signs of God’s favor. Thus, pride was both linguistically (it is impossible to use pyszny or hardy with a cause, as pycha is deeply linked with ‘magnificence’ and hardość with ‘indomitability’), and morally incompatible with the Polish language of the time (pycha being a deadly sin) and thus a new word was needed to express it. I show that the meaning of pycha and pyszny appears quite stable until the 19th century. During that time, its usage shifts slightly from primarily human-centered (‘haughty’, ‘conceited’) to non-human centered (‘magnificent’). During the 19th century, the meaning further extends to ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’, and the adjective is used with a wider set of nouns, including abstract concepts. Then, in the 20th century the meaning narrows down further to just ‘excellent in taste’. This might have been motivated by the shift of the derived noun pyszność/pyszności, as there is evidence that the noun was used in the sense of ‘delicious goods’ before the adjective, and by the ambiguity of sentences where pyszny modifies meals as it is uncertain if the intended meaning corresponds to ‘opulent’, ‘magnificent’, or to delicious.