Today episode of #PolishForForeigners is about the interdisciplinary joint between words of finance and fetish.

I have no idea what is the etymology for this particular context, but rate (in the financial context: interest rate, rate of return, etc) in Polish is stopa (stopa procentowa, stopa zwrotu).

But the other meaning of the word stopa is foot.

Sometimes it's hard to determine, if you're listening to the economist, or to the foot fetishist.

Economist 🤝 Foot fetishist
Stopy poszły w górę.

(feet/rates went up)

Today episode of #PolishForForeigners is about celebrating. We can celebrate some important days, or anniversaries. But first a little bit of religious influence in the language.

So, there are days like Christmas, or Easter, or Ascension. We call them "święto" or in plural "święta". It comes from, and share some meaning with, the word "święty", which - depending on context - could be translated as saint or sacred. There is also a verb "święcić", which means making something sacred/blessed. For example: "święcić jajka" - to bless the eggs - a ritual of blessing the food for Great Sunday breakfast. But there is another verb with the same root "świętować". Which means to celebrate. And this verb, together with the word "święto" migrated from the sphere of sacrum, to the profanum. You can call "independence day" in Polish as "dzień niepodległości". But "święto niepodległości" is also in use, especially, if we are talking about Święto Niepodległości, the national holiday in Poland.

One of the customs to celebrate an occasion is a march, a procession. And during such one people are walking. "To walk" in Polish is "chodzić". And somehow it made into "obchodzić", an another verb meaning "celebrate".

And now we are getting the point. Other meaning of "obchodzić" is "going around".

So, one being asked: "Jak obchodzisz Święto Niepodległości?" (how do you celebrate The Independence Day" can answer with hanging a national flag, and participating in mass celebration, and the other will say "z daleka" to signal, that they are avoid the celebration. "Obchodzić z daleka" is "to going around while keeping a distance", and it is usually used in context of avoidance of something unpleasant, or dangerous.

And as I have fallen down into a language musings pit, here is another Polish word, which is suspiciously similar to the word from our neighbour language: sztambuch.

Right now it is considered a tiny bit archaic. Tiny, as it was used in my parents' childhood, but not anymore in a common language, unless one particularly wants to sound old-fashioned.

The Polish meaning of the sztambuch is a book of friends, but more in the meaning of an album amicorum, than a friendship book (links to wikipedia articles follow).
We still had those in my childhood, but we called them "pamiętnik". Which has this meaning of an album amicorum, but the main meaning is a journal, a diary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Album_amicorum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_book

#PolishForForeigners

When learning Polish, please keep in mind that proper pauses are very important.

uczęszczać - to frequent
uczę szczać - I teach peeing

szczęśliwy - happy/lucky
szczę śliwy - I pee on plum trees

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In this episode of #PolishForForeigners we will talk about one particular superhero, with some particular superpower.

surówka - a salad made from fresh vegetables/fruit
surówka - a pig iron, but in the wide context of its molten state, hot metal

For context, there is a Polish famous person, with a bit of controversy on top, Magda Gessler. She had (has?) a cuisine related show in one of Polish TV stations.

Knowing all of that we can finally get to the point.

Magda Gessler miesza surówkę gołymi rękami.

which means

Magda Gessler mixes surówka barehanded.

Respect from the metallurgy industry.