Przymiotniki barwny, bezbarwny, kolorowy w historii języka polskiego

The aim of the article is to show the development of adjectives barwny (colourful), bezbarwny (colourless), kolorowy (high-coloured) in the history of Polish language as well as to conduct the analysis of the changes that has occurred in the meaning of these words throughout the years. The scrutiny shows that the meaning of the fi rst lexeme is stable in Polish language, with literal meaning prevailing. The original meanings of remaining adjectives in question referred to sensual impressions, therefore to occurrence of colour or its lack, with time in parallel to them transited meanings were preserved and these dominate in the contemporary Polish language. Barwny (colourful) today means the same as wyrazisty (sharp), ciekawy (intriguing), interesujący (interesting) and bezbarwny (colourless) is niewidoczny (invisible), mdły (bland), nieciekawy (uninteresting), niewarty uwagi (not noteworthy).