Today Adam continues his very fascinating story of the emergence of “cool” in Poland in the 00s.

Today we will follow up on being cool and the language of youth in the noughties. It was apparent from episode one, that fashions in this country do change quite rapidly. A new word could suddenly become hot, and then just as suddenly fall out of favor and become passe.

Like the word passe itself. Together with trendy (or trendi) and miejski (urban), it defined the noughties. Thanks to these words we knew what was hip, what was in, and what was out. Though things are pretty straightforward with trendy and passe, the emergence of miejski would probably need some more explanation.

The word miejski (urban) reflected the long-lasting superiority complex that the more fortunate inhabitants of major cities have felt towards the people from small villages and little towns. They have not adopted the new religion of capitalism so eagerly as the cityfolk, were not as comfortable in this new reality and coped with more difficulty. It was, and is, reflected in the state of provincial places which are usually rather run down. Its inhabitants tend to be poorer, and perceived as backwards by those city dwellers. For a long time wiejski (peasant – adjective) was a negative word, almost a curse. Wieśniak (literally peasant – noun, masculine) has for a long time been a synonym for someone who doesn’t know manners, who doesn’t follow hygiene, and is not very intellectually developed. Miejski, therefore, by contrast, has to mean all the positive and higher things in life.

Culmination of the period when passe, trendy and miejski were… trendy was probably the publication of a novel titled “Paris London Dachau” by Agnieszka Drotkiewicz in 2004. This was an utterly bizarre romance story, written in the newly invented style of broken prose (połamana proza). It oozed with consumption of trendy goods and ideologies. Its protagonists dropped names of brands like commas, and spoke quotes from 20th century philosophers, song lyrics and television. Was it a satire on the period of lans? Was it its affirmation? Or was it the needle that broke this growing bubble, so that some of us could wake up and see how odd we were becoming? Preoccupied with being cool, wearing cool, and quoting fashionable philosophers like Baudriliard to criticize it in a cool way at the same time?
Whatever it was, one thing was certain – this book was a very miejska książka (urban book).

But it was also an end of an era.

Episode 3 will deal with “young” Polish words that entered the mainstream and actually stayed there – used since by both the young and old.