Co ma wspólnego stonka z biedronką, czyli próba ustalenia pochodzenia wyrazu stonka
What do a Colorado beetle and a ladybird have in common? An attempt to determine the origin oft he word stonka (Colorado beetle)

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this work is to try to find the etymology of the word stonka and to present the history of this word. In the course of research, the author discovers that the word was first attested in 1780 and meant ‘ladybird’. She suggests that the word stonka is a native derivative and is associated with the verb stać. The author then examines the semantic changes of the word, which depend on the discoveries and findings of entomologists, such as the discovery of the Colorado beetle species in 1824 and the naming of the Chrysomelinae subfamily in Polish. Today the word stonka is the name of a potato pest because it is the most popular representative of the Chrysomelinae subfamily in Poland.

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