What, exactly, did the word “polack” mean in Shakespeare’s time? I’ve been told that it is quite offensive in this day and age, but I seem to come across it every so often while reading Shakespeare, and no one has ever acknowledged it.
Thanks so much for any help you can give.
From Hamlet.
Yes, that’s where I saw it, but I’m afraid I still don’t understand what it means. Does it simply mean “a Polish person?” If so, how did it become derogatory?
According to this commentary, the word means the same as today: the Poles.
Bolding mine
Ah, thank you, Q.E.D.. Was I wrong, then, in assuming the term is derogatory today?
Polack means the same thing today as it did in Shakespeare’s time: A Pole.
And I hereby acknowledge it. 
It seems to have been for some time. I remember Archie Bunker calling his son-in-law a “Polack” and this was back in the 70s. It may not have been as offensive as the N word, but it was certainly taken as derogatory in nature.
Thanks so much for such quick answers!
In Italian, the standard word for Pole is polacco and there is nothing derogatory about it. Shakespeare was a noted fan of Italian literature and Italian culture in general, so hey, why not anglicize polacco? He probably didn’t mean any offense by it. Words not only change their meaning over time, they can also change connotation. Niggard was considered perfectly good English up until a few years ago.
And yes, it is derogatory now, and you should only use it if you intended to be insulting.
Not true in the least, at least where I live. My family (as well as others of Polish descent) often refer to each other good-naturedly as “Polacks” with no ill feelings at all.
Granted, it could be hurtful if it were used as such, but the word in and of itself is not derogatory. It’s the same as other supposed “slurs,” I’d imagine; it’s all in the context and the delivery.
Fisher Queen, did you mean that niggard has now become derogatory and should not be used? Because of the flap over the use of it by a white Washington, DC official before a largely black audience? The District of Columbia came in for a lot of ridicule when the official lost his job for saying “niggard” in reference to the district’s budgetary policies. Do you really think that the flap was sufficient to “denigrate” (so to speak) the word’s connotation ever after?
To fully appreciate the folly: it wasn’t “before a largely balck audience” it was a private conversation between the director of the Office of the Public Advocate and two of the Mayor’s aides. It was ridiculous that it even came to the public attention at all.
Mayor Williams of DC, a black man in a city that is 60% black, had been under criticism for not being ‘black enough’ and for hiring white aides.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9902/04/dc.word.flap/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/williams/williams020499.htm
nineiron, it may not be insulting among folks of Polish descent, but it was always considred an insult if uttered by someone who was not of Polish descent in the various Detroit neighborhoods in which I grew up and went to school.
Given that in Polish, the masculine of the word for a Polish person is Polak, it stands to reason that among people of Polish descent, Polak might not be an insult. However, while multi-ethnic buddies might have called each other “polack,” “mick,” “wop,” “spic,” etc., I have seen fights break out over the use of “Polack” among casual acquaintances or strangers.
In late 20th/early 21st century North American English, the non-insulting term is Pole.
I agree, it’s been considered derogatory by many for some time: a synonym for “stupid person”. Unfortunately, that’s how I first learned to use it.
There was even a book of Polish jokes out in the '70s.
“Didja hear about the Polack who invented a screen door for submarines?”
“Didja hear about the Polack who locked himself in his car?”
“Didja hear about the Polack who thought ‘asphalt’ was a birth defect?”
Etc.
Hardeeharhar.