O funkcjach, budowie i nazywaniu tchawicy w naukach medycznych, w historii polszczyzny oraz w gwarach

This paper is devoted to the lexeme tchawica from a diachronic perspective. The first part is the description of a trachea (its functions and structure) as an anatomical organ, which is followed by the analysis of its etymology. The main focus of investigation is the description of tchawica in the history of the Polish language and dialects. For this purpose, synonyms, derivatives, variant forms (in terms of phonetics and morphology), names based on foreign words (derived from Latin and Greek), as well as hybrid names, have been pointed out. According to the analysis, these names are differentiated both in terms of motivation and form.