polish or polish??

there is a common confusion in english surrounding the word polish.

**polish (first syllable pronounced like go) is the nationality of people from poland. when talking about people from poland, Polish is usually capitalized.

marcin gortat of the washington wizards — marcin gortat is one of the best rebounders in the nba & started every game for the washington wizards this season. gortat is polish. (nick wass, associated press)

bayern munich's robert lewandowski — robert lewandowski of bayern munich is one of the best goal-scorers in the world & the most famous polish footballer. (bongarts)

**polish (first syllable pronounced like the first syllable in politics) is a substance that makes a surface look shiny (bright, reflecting light).

black shoe polish — applied the right way, this product will make your shoes shiny.

see how the red nail polish really makes the nails shine?

this clip from big bang theory is a funny example of how even geniuses can confuse the two words.

during a game of picitionary, sheldon believes he is spoonfeeding (making it extremely easy) leonard the answer. he draws a polish sausage, a model of the solar system developed by nicolaus copernicus and a deceased (dead) marie curie. copernicus and curie were both polish. none of sheldon’s illustrations help leonard get the right answer.

a baby not appreciating a spoon-feeding (shutterstock)

penny, on the other hand, very quickly gets the correct answer from amy by drawing a picture of nail polish. to add insult to injury (make a bad situation worse), penny points out (shows) that the word they were drawing starts with a small p, and thus is referring to the substance that produces a shiny surface, not the nationality.