The structure of the description of men’s clothing in the early 19th century (on the example of the names “koszula”, “spodnie”, “kamizela” || “kamzela”, “kamizelka” || “kamzelka”, “westa”, “westka”)

Abstract

The article presents lexical material on clothing vocabulary. The data have been extracted from mating letters published between 1816 and 1836 in the ”Publiczny Donosiciel” (”Public Denunciator”), which was an appendix to the ”Dziennik Urzędowy Królewskiej Regencyi w Poznaniu” (”Official Gazette of the Royal Regency of Poznań”). The article is an attempt to analyse the structure of the description of men’s clothing of the lower strata. Descriptions of the outfits of sought-after individuals were often detailed and multi-layered, indicating the characteristics (e.g. colours) not only of the garments themselves, but also of the accompanying additional elements (e.g. buttons). Clothing names such as koszula, spodnie i kamizela || kamzela, kamizelka || kamzelka, westa oraz westka were used for the analysis.