# Gotowalnia



## Maroseika

Hello,

According to some sources old (17-18 cent.) Polish _gotowalnia _meant "a toilet table with a set of accessories", from _gotować si_ę_ -_ to prepare in the sense of _upiększać się_, to spruce up, to _prepare _one's face for appearing in society.

My questions are:
1. Is this word still alive in this or any other sense?
2. How do you call a "drawing set" (Russian готовальня)?
3. Does or did in the past _gotować si_ę mean something like "to spruce up?
4. Is it possible to find out when _gotowalnia _was first recordered in Polish?


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## robin74

Maroseika said:


> Is this word still alive in this or any other sense?


No, I personally never heard this word before in this or any other meaning.



> 2. How do you call a "drawing set" (Russian готовальня)?


I don't think it has any specific name in Polish.


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## marco_2

Formally it is called "przybornik kreślarski"


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## Maroseika

And what's about the verb _gotować si_ę? Can it or could it mean "to spruce up"?


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## marco_2

In modern Polish - never, but I found in Brückner's dictionary "_Gotowalnia _wedle _umywalnia_, skrócone z _gotowadlni, _gdzie się panie gotują, "toaleta", so it was possible. In 19th century literature you can find expressions *Gotuj się do drogi*, which have the same meaning as Russian *готовиться к чему-то. *I also found in my old Polish-Russian dictionary printed in 1901 "gotowalnia - туалетъ, уборный столикъ (= dressing table, toilet table)", but I wonder if any contemporary Pole would understand the meaning of this word - they would probably associate it with cooking


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## dn88

Maroseika said:


> And what's about the verb _gotować si_ę? Can it or could it mean "to spruce up"?



In a way, yes. It could mean "prepare oneself/be prepared (for something)".


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## Maroseika

marco_2 said:


> I wonder if any contemporary Pole would understand the meaning of this word - they would probably associate it with cooking


Nor any Russian one. In modern Russian it means only 'drawing set'. Anyway, what I want to find out is where this word first appeared - in Russian or Polish. First Russian record is dated second half of the 17th century in regard of the German toilet table or set, which could be easily imported thru Poland.  
Thank you all for your assistance.


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## Thomas1

Maroseika said:


> And what's about the verb _gotować si_ę? Can it or could it mean "to spruce up"?


It could and it still _can_, in a way.
This meanig/usage of 'gotować' is rather infrequent in modern Polish though.
Here is an example:
Gotują się na Grunwald

In the 18th century the word was used precisely in the sense you're talking about. The one I quoted is not the same, but they are closely related.

Here are some more details on the issue (the quality isn't the best). It's interesting what Linde says about the Russian equivalent.


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## Maroseika

Thank you, this is almost exactly what I looked for. Almost - because the dictionary was published in 1808, and therefore it is still a bit unclear whether the Russian word was loaned from Polish in the 17th cent. or vice-versa. The only hint is that since given there Russian equivalent is not готовальня but уборной столикъ, this may mean that by that time готовальня has dissappeared from Russian as a loaned word substituted with the proper Russian one.
But of course this might happen even if готовальня first appeared in Russian. 
An earlier dictionary would help...


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