In the contemporary English language, the noun Polack (/ˈpoʊlɑːk/ and /-læk/) is a derogatory term, mainly North American, reference to a person of Polish origin.
[8] On 26 July 2008, The Times featured a comment piece by restaurant reviewer and columnist Giles Coren which contained viewpoints that many Poles considered to be anti-Polish.
He went on to articulate his views about the role of Poles in the Holocaust in occupied Poland, referring to the fact that his great-grandfather had left Poland for the United Kingdom:[9] The piece prompted a letter of complaint to The Times from the Polish ambassador to the UK, Barbara Tuge-Erecińska.
In some other languages such as Swedish, Norwegian or Scots, polack or polakk are inoffensive terms for a person from Poland.
Another common Russian ethnic slur for Poles is пшек (pshek), an onomatopoeia derived from Polish phonology: prepositions prze- and przy- are quite common, with rz corresponding to the sound of "zh", and the sibilant-sounding speech (e.g., przepraszam ("excuse me") transcribed as "pzheprasham") has been a target of mockery in Russian culture.