Etymology

polish

P3O1L1I1S1H4

Today it means: Of, from or native to Poland, or relating to the Polish language. Full definition →

Middle English polishen ← Latin polīre ← Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂-
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polish · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*pelh₂-“to drive, strike, thrust”
  2. Latin · derived frompolīre“to polish, make smooth”
  3. Middle English · inherited frompolishen
  4. English todaypolish

From Middle English polishen, from Old French poliss-, stem of some of the conjugated forms of polir, from Latin polīre (“to polish, make smooth”), from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- (“to drive, strike, thrust”), from the notion of fulling cloth.

Polish · adjective, noun2

From Pole + -ish. Doublet of Poylish.

Words from the same roots

Latinpolīre all →

politesse

Proto-Indo-European*pelh₂- all →

anvilcompellation

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.