I've got a question about Polish language.
These two words are the most puzzling:
Kobieta (woman) and Kohac (to love). In other Slavianic languages the word for woman derives mostly from jena or deva and the word for love is mostly along the lines of lubiti, milovati and such.
So, where did those two words come from?
"kobieta" for a woman is a relatively new word. It used to be considered a rude word, Earlier, women were called niewiasty (sing. niewiasta) or białogłowy (białogłowa - "white head", from the head covering). Allegedly, word "kobieta" comes from either kob, which is some old word for pig manger, or from koba, which is old form for kobyła, that is - a female horse. Or from germanic „kebse”, „gabette" - a wife. There are other ideas as well, according to one site I've found:
Kopfweiss - german "white head"
- old-slavonic kobveta - a fairy
concupire (to want) + ubito (sleep)...
finish "kava" - a mother
Again, this site confirms that initially, word "kobieta" was a slur.
And I've heard many times that primate Glemp, who is still living, was opposed to this word as offensive and initially was still using "niewiasty". So it really is a word that became neutral and common very recently.
"jena" - if you mean j pronounced in a french way, then this root is present in polish. "żona" (żena in some dialects) means "wife".
"diva" is also present:
dziewczyna, dziewka, dzieweczka, dziewuszka etc - a girl
dziwka - a whore
