Z zagadnień leksyki ekspresywnej – pilch

From the issues of expressive lexis – pilchThe object of this article is the description and interpretation of the semantic development of the pilch lexeme. In its basic meaning this word means a mammal from the Gliridae family. Pilch has already been known in pre-Slavic language and is also confirmed in the historical dictionaries of the Polish language. The historical material documents only the zoological meaning of the lexeme, while in the local dialects one can observe the semantic development of this unit. Pilch, next to indicating various animals, occurs also as a word describing 1. a mean person 2. a bad-natured person, 3. little child. Pilch is an interesting example of a lexical unit that primarily denominates an animal but which extended its meaning and became a personal expressivism as a result of connotations occurring in the folk culture.