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This preposition has been superseded in all dialects by the form sense. Sens is nowadays only used in poetry (for metrical reasons or for a deliberately archaizing effect), and in common set phrases: sens dubte(“without a doubt”) and sens falta(“without fail”).
The preservation of final /s/ in this term is irregular. Formerly a pronunciation without this /s/ was possible, and is still found in the expressions sens dessus dessous and sens devant derrière.
1461-1467, Sermones. Rękopiśmienne ekscerpty pochodzące z rkpsu Archiwum i Biblioteki Krakowskiej Kapituły Katedralnej o sygn. 230 (dawna sygn. 1421/108 Mns) z roku 1461-1467, page 349r:
In verbo proposito proponitur fides nostra quoad articulum resurectionis probata per sensum, doswyathczona przesz sens, rata per consensum
[In verbo proposito proponitur fides nostra quoad articulum resurectionis probata per sensum, doświadczona przez sens, rata per consensum]
^ Stanisław Dubisz, editor (2003), “sens”, in Uniwersalny słownik języka polskiego [Universal dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volumes 1-4, Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN SA, →ISBN
According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), sens is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 18 times in scientific texts, 1 time in news, 26 times in essays, 18 times in fiction, and 32 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 95 times, making it the 667th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.
References
^ Ida Kurcz (1990) “sens”, in Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume 2, Kraków, Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 523
Further reading
sens in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “sens”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
“SENS”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 24.10.2008