Odp: Polish goddesses and priestesses

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 852
Date: 2000-01-11

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Odegard
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2000 11:55 PM
Subject: [cybalist] Polish goddesses and priestesses

Piotr writes:
 
It's the genitive of bóg, a masculine noun. Like English God, Polish Bóg also serves as the Supreme Being's name. Of course a feminine noun can be formed from bóg; it's bogini 'goddess' -- a common noun, not a name.
A related question is how Polish handles the concept of 'female Christian priest' (as you have in the Church of England).  'Priestess', I think, is unthinkable.
 
Mark.
Never underestimate the lexical resources of any language. The general word for a priest (of whatever cult or denomination) is kapłan, with its feminine counterpart kapłanka. A more specific word for a Christian priest (esp. a Catholic one, but also in the Church of England) is ksiądz, BTW ultimately < *kuningaz. (The usual word for a Protestant priest is pastor). There is a potential feminine counterpart, ksieni, formerly used in the sense 'mother superior' (in a convent). It would be a natural term for a female Catholic priest if such a creature existed.
 
Piotr