O internetowych ciasteczkach

Abstract

The aim of the present article is to discuss the semantic loan ciasteczko (‘cookie’) used in Polish. The new meaning of the word, modelled on English, is connected with computers and the Internet. The new legal regulations in Poland require all Polish websites to inform the Internet users about the fact that a given website uses cookies. Quotations from various Polish websites are analyzed; it is clear that the form in question is far from fully assimilated into Polish, as there is a great deal of confusion seen among the authors of texts published on the Internet. Four main solutions are in operation: (1) the use of the English lexical borrowing only, (2) the use of the English semantic borrowing only, (3) the use of both the English semantic and lexical borrowing and (4) the use of the English lexical borrowing followed by a definition of the term in Polish. In addition, new collocations of the word are analyzed.