The winter season is over and foreigners start to go away for weekends all over Poland in order to take a break from hustle and bustle of big cities. Such trips do not only offer opportunities to explore Poland, but also allow you to enlarge your Polish vocabulary. While travelling you might notice that, for instance, there are plenty of names, such as zajazd, gospoda, karczma and oberża instead of good old restaurants.
POLISH LEXICAL DILEMMAS: OBERŻA AND KARCZMA
Foreigners who are learning Polish and explore the secrets of Polish conjugations and vocabulary on a daily basis do not find it difficult to understand the meaning of those words. However, after they return to class they always ask the same question: what is the DIFFERENCE between the two forms?
Let’s look at the facts. All the words – zajazd, gospoda, karczma and oberża (inn, tavern)– were initially used to call a place to eat near a road, where travellers could have something to eat and stay for the night. In times when people travelled on horseback or by carriage a lot, it was extremely important for such places to have horse stables. Nowadays there are no stables anymore, and the main purpose of such a place is to offer food. If you are tired from travelling and are looking for a place to stay for the night, you should rather go for zajazd. Most places with names like that provide their customers with accommodation as well as food.
OBERŻA, KARCZMA, ZAJAZD, GOSPODA – ETYMOLOGY
All the confusion about the words zajazd, gospoda, karczma and oberża results from the fact that the Polish have adopted several forms of different origin to name the same thing. Next to the Polish forms zajazd (which comes from the verb zajechać, i.e. stop by a place on the way somewhere), and gospoda (from the verb gościć, which means to host), there are loanwords, such as the word oberża (French auberge), or words that are derived from the Old Polish language – karczma. Because of its origin the last noun is quite easily recognized by Slavic students (in Czech it’s krčma), and it is probably derived from the Proto-Slavic verb *krčiti, i.e. to clear land, cut down trees. That is related to the fact that karczmy were often built on clearings (karczowiska), i.e. the places where the trees were cut down so as to prepare the infrastructure for construction of a karczma, for instance.
KARCZEMNA AWANTURA IN A KARCZMA
The noun karczma became so common in the Polish culture that the adjective karczemny, which means vulgar, coarse, loud, soon appeared. It is often used to describe a conflict and it collocates with the noun awantura (a row). Remember then not to get involved in karczemne awantury (blazing rows) during your trips in Poland, stay for the night at zajazd and eat at oberża :)
