So I was listening to the music of Jacek Kleyff and noticed that Polish preserves some idioms from pagan times:
* Patrzeć na kogoś jak na [raroga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rar%C3%B3g)
* Niech to [licho](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likho) porwie
* (possibly) Niech go piorun trzaśnie
I was wondering if anyone knows of any more examples.
8 comments
“perunie” na Śląsku
Raróg is name of rare bird and this saying is more modern coming from it – http://www.poradnia-jezykowa.uz.zgora.pl/wordpress/?p=1146
With licho there’s also “licho nie śpi”.
“Święto lasu!” – some usually positive but unexpected occurrence.
“Trzymać kciuki” – fingers crossed, but more literally holding the thumbs, doesn’t sound very pagan but some believe it has roots in there
“Bies w niego wstąpił” – he got unresonably angry, literally got possessed by evil spirit
“Czart nie śpi” – the devil (but the little slavic one) does not sleep
“Na dwoje babka wróżyła” 50/50 odds, the grandma* bodes both scenarios (hard to translate)
Połknął czart babę, ale nie mógł jej strawić?
“Czort go wie” maybe
“Niech to czort”? W sumie nigdy nie słyszałem tego pierwszego. Ktoś coś gdzie tak ludzie mówią?
Piorun just means lightning/thunder. Cursing on something to be struck by lightning doesn’t sound very pagan. If anything our word for lightning preserves the word from pagan times.
Licho/czort as “the devil” are really preserving pagan names