Polacke and Polackei: are they taboos in German?
In modern German, the expressions Polacke and Polackei are not accepted for official use. The meanings of these words, found in the contemporary and historical German explanatory dictionaries, show their changing semantic and pragmatic connotation. The lexeme Polacke being formerly neutral in the sense of Pole Heinsius 1840; Heyse 1849; Hoffmann 1861 in the course of time became marked: from jocular Sander 1863, ironical Grimm 1854–1960 to extremely pejorative Weigand, Hirt 1910; Der Sprach-Brockhaus 1948; Mackensen 1986; Brockhaus-Wahrig 1986; Duden 1999. The existence of pejoratively marked ethnonyms in the sound of their original language is not a new phenomenon. Because of them being faux amis for a translator, they should be incorporated in larger translatory dictionaries, which has not been done yet.