thumb|Proverbiorum Polonicorum a Solomone Rysinio (Polish Proverbs by Salomon Rysiński), a 1618 collection of Polish proverbs (in Latin), recognized as the first work dedicated to collecting Polish proverbs
Tens of thousands of Polish proverbs exist; many have origins in the Middle Ages. The oldest known Polish proverb dates to 1407. A number of scholarly studies of Polish proverbs (paremiology) exist; and Polish proverbs have been collected in numerous dictionaries and similar works from the 17th century onward. Studies in Polish paremiology have begun in the 19th century.
Some Polish proverbs have been medieval translations of Latin classics. Thus, "Oko pańskie konia tuczy" – "The master's eye fattens the horse" – comes from the Latin "Oculus domini saginat equum"; and the latter Latin proverb was likely translated from a still older Persian one. Other proverbs have taken their origin from other European languages.
Many proverbs have been popularized by Polish literature. For example, the popularity of "Oko pańskie konia tuczy" has been attributed to its inclusion in Adam Mickiewicz's epic poem, Pan Tadeusz.
Themes
As with proverbs of other peoples around the world, Polish proverbs concern many topics; A theme unique to Polish proverbs is about Poles and Poland; one of the most famous of these states that "Polacy nie gęsi lecz własny język mają" ("Poles are not geese, they have their own tongue"), in a 1562 verse by Mikołaj Rej, and commonly interpreted as stressing the importance of having one's own national language (here, Polish).
Polish paremiology
page=3|thumb|Title page of the late 19th century Samuel Adalberg's Księga przysłów polskich, recognized as one of the landmark works in Polish paremiology.
The first known Polish author interested in proverbs was the poet Biernat of Lublin, who in 1522 published a collection of them titled , mędrca obyczajnego i z przypowieściami jego (The life of Aesop the Phrygian, a Decent Sage, and with His Parables).), collected over 1,800 proverbs which, according to the author, were "of Polish origin". and "the most extensive collection ever made in this field". The early 20th century saw further scholarly analysis of Polish proverbs by scholars such as Aleksander Brückner and Jan Stanisław Bystroń, the latter known as "the father of modern Polish paremiology", and the author of the monograph simply titled Przysłowia polskie (Polish proverbs, 1933).