drabina

Polish

Drabina

Etymology

From Old Polish drab +‎ -ina, cognate to Belarusian драбіны (drabiny) and Ukrainian драби́на (drabýna) (not Serbo-Croatian drȇbīna which is from German Drehbühne). This is possibly from a Proto-Slavic *drabь or *drabъ but possibly also a borrowing.

Else in Balto-Slavic it has been connected to Lithuanian dìrbti (“to work”) (so Brückner) which equals Proto-Germanic *derbaną (“to work”), to Lithuanian drebė́ti (“to quiver”), Russian дря́бы (drjáby, “carriage for sheaves”), Belarusian дра́бы (dráby, “rips”), Czech droby (“giblets”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /draˈbi.na/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ina
• Syllabification: dra‧bi‧na

Noun

drabina f (diminutive drabinka)

1. ladder (climbing tool)

   Synonym: (regional) drabka

   wspinać się po drabinie ― to climb up a ladder

2. ladder (a hierarchy)

Declension

Declension of drabina

	singular	plural
nominative	drabina	drabiny
genitive	drabiny	drabin
dative	drabinie	drabinom
accusative	drabinę	drabiny
instrumental	drabiną	drabinami
locative	drabinie	drabinach
vocative	drabino	drabiny

Derived terms

adjectives

• drabiniasty
• drabinowy

 

nouns

• autodrabina
• drabiniak
• drabinka

 

References

• “Treppe” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• Boryś, Wiesław (2005) “drabina”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego (in Polish), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, →ISBN, page 122
• Brückner, Aleksander (1927) “drab”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego [Etymological Dictionary of the Polish Language] (in Polish), Warsaw: Wiedza Powszechna, page 94

Further reading

• drabina in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• drabina in Polish dictionaries at PWN