r/Polish • u/Warm_Data_168 • 20h ago
The word "jeden" means a similar thing in both Polish and German
Polish "jeden" is the number 1.
German also has the word "jeden", which means something singularly, like "jeden tag" means "every day" where "jeden" denotes "every". This is easy because you can think of it like "every 1 day", even though it doesn't quite translate like that.
Nonetheless, the word "jeden" in Polish and "jeden" in German have different etymologies despite their surface similarity.
- In Polish, "jeden" meaning "one" comes from Proto-Slavic edinъ, which ultimately traces back to the Proto-Indo-European root h₁óynos, meaning "one" or "single." This form is inherited through the Slavic language lineage and is attested in Old Polish and other West Slavic languages like Czech.
- In German, "jeden" is not the cardinal number one but the accusative form of the pronoun "jeder," meaning "every" or "each." The German "jeder" comes from the Old High German "jeder" and ultimately also from Proto-Germanic roots connected to the concept of "each/any," not directly the numeral "one".
So while the Polish "jeden" and German "jeden" look the same, the Polish word is directly from the Indo-European root for the number one, whereas the German word is from a different root related to distribution or universality (each/every). Their similarity is due to coincidental overlap of forms rather than shared etymology in this particular case.
Thus, the reason for their similarity is more a linguistic coincidence relating to related Indo-European roots expressing singularity or distribution but they do not share a direct etymological pathway for this word itself.