niech

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See also: niéch

Old Polish

Etymology

Clipping of niechaj. First attested in the 15th century. Compare Old Czech nechť.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (10th–15th CE) /ɲɛːx/
  • IPA(key): (15th CE) /ɲex/

Particle

niech

  1. (hortative) forms third person imperative; let
    Synonyms: niecha, niechaj
    • 1858 [c. 1408], “Wyroki sądów miejskich czyli ortyle [Urban court rulings i.e. "Ortyls"]”, in Wacław Aleksander Maciejowski, editor, Historia prawodawstw słowiańskich [History of Slavic lawmaking], volume 6, page 145:
      Tak, yako napyszano, nyech stoy
      [Tak jako napisano, niech stoi]

Related terms

particles
verbs

Descendants

  • Masurian: niéch
  • Polish: niech
  • Silesian: niych

References

Polish

Etymology

Inherited from Old Polish niech. By surface analysis, clipping of niechaj. Compare Czech nechť, Serbo-Croatian neka, Ukrainian неха́й (nexáj), and Upper Sorbian njech.

Pronunciation

Particle

niech

  1. forms the third person imperative in the singular and plural; let, may
    Niech moc będzie z tobą! ― May the force be with you!
    Niech cię Bóg błogosławi. ― God bless you.
  2. forms the first person imperative in the singular; used only with perfective verbs; let, may
    Niech no pomyślę... ― Let me think...
    Niech zgadnę... ty jesteś John? ― Let me guess... you must be John?
  3. expresses optative meaning; had better, may
  4. (sciences) let (used to specify the meaning of a variable)
    Synonym: gdzie
    Niech x oznacza... ― Let x signify...
  5. (Middle Polish) if only; only
    Synonym: tylko

Interjection

niech

  1. (Middle Polish) expresses dissatisfaction or impatience

Conjunction

niech

  1. (Middle Polish) creates a subordinate clause expressing desire or wish; to, so that, for that, in order to
    Synonyms: aby, żeby
  2. (Middle Polish) creates a conditional; if
    Synonym: jeśli

Derived terms

particles

Related terms

particles

Trivia

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), niech is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 8 times in scientific texts, 1 time in news, 12 times in essays, 60 times in fiction, and 219 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 300 times, making it the 168th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.

References

  1. ^ Ida Kurcz (1990) “niech”, in Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language]‎ (in Polish), volume 1, Kraków, Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 280

Further reading

  • niech in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • niech in Polish dictionaries at PWN
  • Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “niech”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
  • Renata Bronikowska (29.12.2012) “NIECH”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century]
  • Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “niech”, in Słownik języka polskiego‎
  • Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “niech”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861‎
  • J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1904), “niech”, in Słownik języka polskiego‎ (in Polish), volume 3, Warsaw, page 261
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