inwalid

Inwalid is a Polish noun meaning a person who has a permanent disability, typically as a result of injury or illness. Historically it functioned as a formal designation in legal and administrative contexts to identify individuals eligible for disability-related support. The term occurs in compound phrases such as inwalid wojenny (war invalid) and in various inflected forms used in everyday and bureaucratic speech. The term can carry stigmatizing or clinical overtones in contemporary usage, and it is increasingly supplanted by person-centred phrases.

Etymology and forms: The word is borrowed from Western European languages, ultimately from the French invalid and from Latin invalidus, arriving in Polish through military and administrative vocabulary in the 19th–20th centuries. The masculine noun inwalid has the feminine form inwalidka, and the plural is inwalidzi (masculine) or inwalidki (feminine), depending on gender and usage.

Modern usage and context: In modern Poland, official language tends toward osoba z niepełnosprawnością or niepełnosprawny in many contexts, particularly in public discourse and welfare policy. Inwalid remains found in historical texts, certain legal phrases, and some self-descriptions, notably inwalid wojenny or inwalida wojennego when referring to veterans with disability status.

See also: Niepełnosprawność; Osoba z niepełnosprawnością; Inwalida wojenny.