Studia Językoznawcze

Changes in calling homosexual men can be seen by examining and comparing the contents of basic definitional dictionaries of Polish language for the last 50 years, as well as colloquial Polish language dictionaries, including the latest online dictionaries Polish language colloquial and slang. Latest from the Polish language dictionaries overall (Uniwersalny słownik języka polskiego, ed. S. Dubisz) include a few names of male homosexuals: ciota, gej/gay, homoseksualista, pederasta, pedalstwo, pedał, pedzio. In colloquial Polish language dictionaries were such other names as adidas, ciepły brat, homoerota, homoser, homoserek, homospecjalista, kochający inaczej, lawenda, spedalały. The terms that appeared only in the online dictionaries are: czajnik, fag, faggot, gejowy, gejsza, gładki, obcisły gej, spedalony gej and wesołek. Can be observed numerous differences in qualification and define the names of homosexual men among the above cited dictionaries. It seems that the commonly used today the name is gej and not only in colloquial Polish language, but also in standard Polish language, and – I think – the noun displaces from the variety of Polish the words homoseksualista and pederasta. A clear majority of pejorative names (including contemptuous and offensive names) show negative attitude of speakers to homosexual men.