Teonim Perun w leksyce średnio- i nowopolskiej (na podstawie słowników)
Theonym Perun in Mid- and Modern-Polish Lexis (on the Basis of Dictionaries)

Summary/Abstract: The article is an attempt to demonstrate that the theonym Perun/Piorun was used (and in some instances is still used) in the Polish language.The completed analyses have shown that the name of the Slavic god of thunder functions solely in a scholarly discourse. He appears in it as Piorun, in the 16th century, principally in historical texts. This phonetical form was preserved until the 19th century, changing its denotations. In the texts of 16th-century historians, the theonym Piorundenoted a Slavic god (including the god from the pantheon of prince Vladimir theGreat), as well as Lithuanian Perkunas. In later studies, it begins to denote only the supreme Slavic god. This interpretation has been presented, for example, by S. B. Linde.The data from Orgelbrand’s encyclopaedia show that at the close of the 19th centuryand the beginning of the 20th century, lexically, there was a clear differentiation between Polish Piorun, Rus Perun and the Lithuanian god named Perkunas. Mostlikely, it was in the scholarly literature of the 20th century that the theonym Piorun wasreplaced by Perun, which denotes the god of thunder of all Slavs as well as the godfrom the pantheon of Vladimir.In the colloquial Polish language the theonym Perun is evidenced onlyindirectly: 1. in the name of thunder (Pol. piorun), 2. in the names of elongated stonesfound after a storm – belemnites or fulgurites (piorunowy kamień [thunderstone],piorunowa strzała [thunder arrow], piorunek [small thunder]), 3. in the folklore nameziele piorunowe [thunder herb] ‘garden asparagus'.

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