palach

[David Powelstock]

[marginal correction] The Czech surname Palach is unrelated the Russian (or
Turkish) *palach*. First, the final consonant of the Czech surname is not
<ch> (as in cheese) but <kh> ('x' in Cyrillic). The noun *palach
*('executioner')
is not a Czech word, to the best of my knowledge; even if it were, it would
be spelled differently. The surname Palach is probably a variant of Paluch,
from the Polish for big toe or short finger (disclaimer: I'm not a
Polonist!), perhaps used as a figurative nickname for a small person (cf.
Tom Thumb).

Cheers,
David P

On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 10:10 AM, Lewis B. Sckolnick
<info at runanywhere.com>wrote:

>  Palach is an executioner or hangman and someone who most likely has a
> certain amount of judicial discretion. The word is from the Turkish. Palach
> is taken as a Jewish name in the Turkish world, thus Palache, Palaggi,
> Falaji, Palyaj related to Hazzan and there is of course Jan Palach from
> Prague. In this instant case context must be allowed to play a large role
> even if the resulting translation might not be as genteel as some might want
> it to be.
>
> Lewis B. Sckolnick
> The Ledge House
>

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