Studia Językoznawcze

The article contains an analysis of the ways of describing women’s formal dress trains on the basis of the sixteen quotations excerpted from the first three volumes of ‘Weekly Chronicles’ by Bolesław Prus. The purpose of the research is to determine the language description indicators of the so called ‘women’s trains’ and to discover the reasons why the author so often mentioned them in his Chronicles in the years 1874–1878. At that time according to traditional customs ladies were obliged to wear sweeping dresses, even while strolling. Both the Polish Language Dictionary of S.B. Linde and the Warsaw dictionary state that the metaphorical usage of the noun ogon [‘tail’] in the meaning of ‘women’s train’ had been known in the Polish language of the 19th century. The quotations are divided according to how they have been marked: ironically, sneeringly, positively or neutrally. Negative emotions have turned out to be the dominant ones and they are expressed in the form of harsh and exaggerated criticism. Bolesław Prus used many language means in order to portray the problem that he was absorbed by: metaphors, similes, epithets, animalisation, enumeration, rhetorical questions, and apostrophes. The writer wanted to highlight how impractical women’s trains were and what negative impact they had on the conditions in the Warsaw Saxon Garden (Ogród Saski), where they contributed to the deterioration of air pollution. As a columnist Prus portrayed the problem in a humorous way using numerous stylistic means, which have been presented with examples.