grzebień

Inherited from Old Polish *grzebień. First attested in 1500–1517.^[1]

• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -ɛbjɛɲ
• Syllabification: grze‧bień
• Homophone: Grzebień

grzebień m inan (diminutive grzebyk, related adjective grzebieniowy)

2. comb (toothed implement for grooming one's hair)
4. (zootomy) comb, crest (red fleshy growth on the top of the head of a rooster or hen)
   1. (obsolete) crest (feathery decoration on a helmet)
   2. (Middle Polish, zootomy) synonym of podgardle
   3. (obsolete, zootomy) crest (tip of a stallion's genitalia)
   4. (obsolete, zootomy) transparent, fanlike membrane in a bird's stomach (Is there an English equivalent to this definition?)
      1. (Middle Polish) synonym of płetwa
5. (zootomy) comb, crest (series of toothed appendages along the tail and back of reptiles)
6. comb (something resembling a comb for one's hair)
   1. (weaving) comb (tool for straightening a warp)
   2. (milling) comb (iron wheel and tooth in a mill)
   3. (milling) crested chisel (toothed chisel for turning screws, etc.)
   4. (obsolete, hunting) comb (pole covered with iron hooks used for catching wolves)
   5. (obsolete, firearms) sight (small stick used as a sight on rifles and shotguns placed at the very beginning of the barrel near the stock)
   6. (obsolete) comb (wooden board attached to a workbench with protruding steel teeth,with which it cleans bristles and hair)
   7. (obsolete) comb (noselike extension of the spine of a boat going upwards)
   8. (obsolete) type of executioner's tool
   9. (obsolete) crest (grapevine axis together with the peduncles on which grape berries are mounted)
   10. (obsolete) crest (strip with a chip cut in for each legator so that they do not rub against each other when walking next to each other)
   11. (Near Masovian, Far Masovian, Ostrów) comb (iron notch in the head of a plough on which a wheel with a chain from a cart is placed)
   12. (Podlachia, Tykocin) comb (tool for linen cleaning)
7. (anatomy) crest (protruding, thickened fragment of bone, a place of attachment of muscles or interosseous membranes)
8. (architecture) crest (openwork decorative element placed on the roof ridge or eaves)
9. crest (long, thick fur along the back of a chamois)
10. (Podlachia, Międzyrzec Podlaski) synonym of grzbiet (“ridge of a causeway”)
11. (Central Greater Poland, Jaraczewo, Śrem) synonym of klepisko
13. (Northern Borderlands, Lithuania) type of game

    Synonym: sito

14. (Podlachia, Kodeń) synonym of wierzchołek (“rooftop”)
15. (obsolete) type of hood on a smokestack
16. (obsolete) crest (top edge of a rock or wave)

• The game of sense 10 is played thusly: four players (the allowed amount) drive four pegs into the ground in the form a square, then each of the four players takes one, and one calls out loudly:

"Moja pani, moja pani,
pożycz że mi grzebienia,
bo ja Żydóweczka z Będzina.
Jeno się oscese,
to ci go odniese."

"My lady, my lady,
loan me a comb,
because I am a Jew from Będzin.
I will just comb myself,
then I will bring it back to you."

• grzebień in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• grzebień in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “grzebień”, in Słownik języka polskiego
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “grzebień”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1900), “grzebień”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 1, Warsaw, page 931
• Jan Karłowicz (1901) “grzebień”, in Słownik gwar polskich [Dictionary of Polish dialects] (in Polish), volume 2: F do K, Kraków: Akademia Umiejętności, page 139