Nazwy demonów powietrznych w historii języka polskiego

Abstract

The analysis was undertaken concerning the ancient names of air ghosts and spirits in this article. The written material gathered from all available lexicographical sources registered the ’lexis’ to the end of 18th century. The author used the old texts and literature for example: Postępek prawa czartowskiego przeciwko narodowi ludzkiemu and Pogrom czartowskie błędy, latawców zdrady i alchemickie zdrady jako rozpłasza. As was evidenced the vintage names of air spirits were structured as a form of three ’pictures’ such as: 1. ‘given to fly’, 2. ‘given to whistle’, 3. ‘the fire in the sky’ the key figure among these creatures was latawiec who was taken as a satan’s helper other demons were treated as an entities who plagued the human kind with bad meteorological aura. Some of them took a revenge on the people for disturbance of their peace and quiet (for instance – południca). Others were the creatures who did a penance. Some characters existed to teach people how to do a husbandry. The author took a notice that there’s no way to reconstruct the full measure of meanings because of the gaps in the written text.