On being decent. The meaning and axiology of the lexemes przyzwoity ‘decent’ and przyzwoitość ‘decency’ in the history of Polish

Abstract

This study was inspired by the famous turn of phrase that came from the Polish statesman Władysław Bartoszewski: “It’s good to be decent” (Warto być przyzwoitym). It is frequently quoted in public discourse and invokes decency as a value that is construed intuitively and is difficult to define. The article presents a diachronic analysis of the lexemes przyzwoity ‘decent’ przyzwoitość ‘decency’, and przyzwoicie ‘decently’ since their oldest records until current usage. These lexemes appeared at the beginning of the Middle Polish period but their axiological load was low at that time. The evolution of their meanings – from axiologically neutral to positive – occurred late (in the second half of the 18th c.) and progressed quickly. Their neutral meanings, which were well-documented as late as in the 18th c., disappeared; the lexemes remained in current usage but as axiologically positive ones. Through an analysis of the early contexts an attempt is made to reconstruct of the original sense of decency and to discover its key sense in contemporary Polish.