Crossword Knowledge 2

More words and facts I have learned from crosswords (krzyżówki)

A nice easy one to start off with.  A word very similar to our own.

Clue: Wyspa wokół laguny - Island around a lagoon.

A coral island consisting of a ring-shaped reef enclosing a lagoon is an atoll, in English.

Answer: Atol.

Very close to the English, which must mean they share the same origin.  Atoll is from the Divehi / Maldivian atolu, applied to the Maldive Islands, which are typical examples of this structure.  It seems atol is given the same etymology and is closer to the origin word.  While we're on the subject: coral reef in Polish is rafa koralowa and The Great Barrier Reef is Wielka Rafa Koralowa.  Wielka being great (or huge), as in Wielka Brytania for Great Britain.

Clue: ... Dmowski.  This clue suggests that purely by stating the surname, we should know the first name, or imię, of this person, so they must be very well known.  Also, I'm pretty sure we are talking about a man here, because of the spelling of the surname.  For a woman, I'm pretty sure the surname would be Dmowska.  That's something I learned pretty early on.  Men do useful work like hitting bells and getting dogs to dribble and have names like Pavlov and women go about ballet dancing and having desserts named after them with names like Pavlova.  Yes, yes, terrible example, I know, considering that Polish names don't use the letter V, but there you are.  Anyway.

Answer: Roman.

Roman Dmowski was a highly influential politician and probably quite divisive considering his views marginalized ethnic groups in Poland.  Read more here.