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Archiver > HERBARZ > 2003-08 > 1060013239


From: "Leon Stevens" <>
Subject: RE: Noble, Commoner. Misconception
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2003 12:07:19 -0400


> "Knight" and "nobleman" do not refer to the same question <

Because words in one or more languages are cognate does not guarantee
that they continue to have the same meaning as their common root.
German "Knecht" ("servant") later went on to connote a lowly feudal
militant as in "Landsknecht" ("mercenary"), but not "Ritter" (equivalent
to English "knight"). Polish "rycerz" (from German "Ritter") is used
only figuratively to describe any nobleman but is not a legal term.
Both the king as well as the naked noble street beggar are "rycerze"
("knights") as well as szlachcice ("noblemen"). Polish has a wide range
of informal terms to describe the economic circumstances of various
individual nobles, many derisive, but none are legal terms.


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