Polabiann.adj.
/pə(ʊ)ˈleɪbɪən/, /pə(ʊ)ˈlɑːbɪən/, U.S. /poʊˈleɪbiən/, /poʊˈlɑbiən/ Now historical.
A. n.
1. A member of a people formerly inhabiting the region around the lower Elbe. Cf. Polab n. 1, Wend n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > ethnicities > Slav people > [noun] > Polabian
Polab1799
Polabian1866
1866 Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 767/1 The Polabians never attained any distinct political footing.
1880 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 9 184 It was bounded on the west by the Wagrians, on the east by the Wiltzi, and on the south by the Polabians.
1934 Speculum 9 157 Two new bishoprics were founded, Ratzeburg for the Polabians, and Mecklenburg for the Obodrites.
1997 Polish-Amer. Jrnl. (Nexis) 1 Oct. 1 German bards and merchants carried the vampire tales of the Polabians, Wends, Poles and Kashubs back home to the valley of the Rhine.
2. The West Slavonic language of the Polabians, extinct by the 18th cent. and documented only in fragmentary texts. Cf. Polab n. 2, Wendish n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > languages of the world > Indo-Hittite > [noun] > Indo-European > Balto-Slavic > Slavonic > Lechitic > Polabian
Polabish1852
Polabian1867
Polab1871
1867 W. D. Whitney Lang. & Study of Lang. 214 To the other section, the western, belong the Polish..and the Polabian, on the Elbe.
1888 J. Wright tr. K. Brugmann Elem. Compar. Gram. Indo-Germanic Lang. I. 12 The Slavonic languages fall into a South-Eastern and a Western group... To the latter [belong] Czech.., Sorabian or Wendish..and Lechish (Polish and Polabian or Elbe-Slavonian).
1925 P. Radin tr. J. Vendryes Language 287 Polabian has been absorbed into German, as Cornish into English.
1955 R. Jakobson Slavic Langs. (ed. 2) 2 The last remnant of Polabian on the left bank of the lower Elbe..died out toward the middle of the eighteenth century, but is known through a few vocabulary lists and short texts recorded about 1700.
2001 Cultural Survival Q. (Nexis) 31 July 9 The European languages Polabian, Dalmatian, and Mozarabic have been relegated to the linguistic junkyard.
B. adj.
Of or relating to the Polabians or their language.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > ethnicities > Slav people > [adjective] > Polabian
Polabian1880
Polab1934
the mind > language > languages of the world > Indo-Hittite > [adjective] > Indo-European > Balto-Slavic > Slavic > Lechitic
Polabian1880
Lechish1888
Sorbian1908
Lech1911
Lechitic1934
1880 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 9 181 They are all classed together by Schafarik under the name of Polabian Slaves.
1891 F. M. Müller Lect. Sci. Lang. I. vii. 270 The Polabian dialect became gradually extinct at the beginning of the last century.
1934 O. Jespersen Lang. vi. 117 The now extinct Polabian language.
1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia VI. 133/3 The extinct Polabian language, which bordered the Sorbian dialects in East Germany, was spoken by the Slavic population of the Elbe River region until the 17th or 18th century.
1992 Moscow News (Nexis) 19 Feb. (Politics section) The successful counterattacks launched from time to time enabled them [sc. the Czechs] to keep their Slav identity intact and avoid the sad fate of Polabian Slavs who were finally assimilated by Germans in the 18th century.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1866