Profesor Tadeusz Szymański jako badacz leksyki prasłowiańskiej

The preliminary part of the study presents a scientific profile of Professor Tadeusz Szymański in the initial (over twenty years) period of his research activity at the Institute of Slavic Studies (Slavistics) of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In the article the particular attention was paid to the participation and researcher’s contribution to the Proto‑Slavic lexicon which is archival these days. The initial versions of the PSL vocabulary words *medvědь, *mešьka (*mečьka) and *mekati developed by Tadeusz Szymański became the starting point to present them in a broader research perspective (not only etymological, but also ethno‑ and geolinguistics), more than 50 years after being developed. It is worth emphasizing that, despite the significant progress on the work on PSL lexicology, these unique dictionary materials can still serve as a starting point for further detailed research and verification of existing findings.