Pop czy ksiądz? O problemie współczesnego nacechowania tradycyjnej nazwy duchownego prawosławnego
Orthodox Priest or Priest? Problems of Contemporary Characterization in Traditional Names of an Orthodox Clergyman

Summary/Abstract: The author considers the issue of contemporary characterization in traditional names of an Orthodox clergyman pop [Orthodox priest]. This word in Old Polish meant priest in general, but with the time being, it started to be a term used to describe only Orthodox and Uniate clergymen and such a meaning is desrcibed in contemporary dictionaries of Polish language. However, in Orthodox community it passes as a disparaging and even offensive one. The proofs are: ministers’ statements available on websites, the ways of believers addressing the clergymen, Orthodox people’s statements on the Internet fora and the analysis of the material from the greatest Orthodox journal „Przegląd Prawosławny” [The Orthodox Review]. The following situation developed only in 20th century, yet already in Old polish some negative connotations of the word pop were mentioned. A lot of contemporary dictionaries passes over the issue of marking the words, more information is provided by encyclopedia publications. They are however discrepant – a word is presented as neutral, colloquial, partly archaic, fi nally having an expressive value, the last register being hard to reach. Much evidence suggests that the language users are confused as to the appropriateness of this word and the awareness of pragmatic consequences of using this word towards Orthodox people is not common. Hence the postulate of the practice to enrich dictionaries with the information on „improper” value of the word pop and other similar words. Trans. A. Gierba

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