niech

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word niech. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word niech, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say niech in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word niech you have here. The definition of the word niech will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofniech, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
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, attested in Greater Poland) forms third person imperative; let
    Synonyms: niecha, niechaj
    • 1858 [c. 1408], Wojciech Szurkowski z Ponieca, “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, Poniec, page 145:
      Tak, yako napyszano, nyech stoy
      [Tak jako napisano, niech stoi]
(particles):
(verbs):

Descendants

  • Polish: niech
  • Silesian: niych

References

  • Boryś, Wiesław (2005) “niech”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego (in Polish), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, →ISBN
  • Bańkowski, Andrzej (2000) “niech”, in Etymologiczny słownik języka polskiego [Etymological Dictionary of the Polish Language] (in Polish)
  • B. Sieradzka-Baziur, Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “niech”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN

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

 
  • Audio 1:(file)
  • Audio 2:(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛx
  • Syllabification: niech

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):
(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.[1]

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