{"id":320,"date":"2008-11-08T15:06:30","date_gmt":"2008-11-08T19:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/?p=320"},"modified":"2008-11-08T15:06:30","modified_gmt":"2008-11-08T19:06:30","slug":"stary-piernik-and-other-expressions-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/stary-piernik-and-other-expressions-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Stary Piernik and Other Expressions, part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>John H. came up with an excellent suggestion for a blog post and I gotta say that neither I nor my friends have ever had so much fun gathering material and doing \u201clinguistic\u201d research. Some of those expressions \u2013 I even forgot they existed. Like \u201cstary piernik<\/a><\/strong>\u201d for example. When translated literally, it becomes \u201cold gingerbread.\u201d But in fact, it\u2019s a gentler version of a more \u201cto the point\u201d Polish expression, which is not quite polite \u2013 \u201cstary pierd\u2026<\/strong>\u201d and I don\u2019t think I should be teaching you these, anyway.<\/p>\n

(Now you see why my friends and I had so much fun\u2026 I think we event invented a couple of new Polish curse words!)<\/em><\/p>\n

But, stary piernik<\/strong> is a rather benign version \u2013 and it means something like \u201cold fart\u201d or \u201cold geezer.\u201d And just like in English, it\u2019s used to describe men of a certain age and certain characteristics.<\/p>\n

And while we\u2019re on the subject of \u201cpiernik<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 this word is also used in another idiomatic expression:<\/p>\n