O perskim oku i o tym, co naprawdę jest perskie w polskich konstrukcjach frazeologicznych

The subject of the article are certain idiomatic expressions constructed with the adjective perski (‘Persian’) in Polish: perskie oko (‘Persian eye’), perski dywan (‘Persian carpet’), perski proszek (‘Persian powder’) etc. Moreover, the author attempts to answer the question: What do we have that is really Persian in Polish? Are these phrases really related to Persia or Persians, or are they just a word game (homophones)? So far the origin of the most popular one, i.e. perskie oko (‘Persian eye’) has not been established even though a lively discussion on this subject was held on the pages of the Język Polski 90 years ago. It was started by Stanisław Szober who in his book Życie wyrazów, explained the origin of the phrase perskie oko for the first time, indicating that it is a semantic borrowing from French, and its basis is l’œil perçant ‘piercing eye’. In response, Józef Birkenmajer claimed this popular phrase comes from Krakow, relating it – quite incredibly – to a Persian man on the label of the popular Zacherlin insecticide powder called perski proszek (‘Persian powder’). It turns out that the source of this expression was a French anecdote by Alphonse Karr from the late nineteenth century based precisely on the word game.