Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/polica - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Related to *polъ (“flank”) or *polti (“to twine”) +‎ *-ica, possibly originally meaning “plank, beam”. Could be further akin to Latvian spals (“handle, shaft”).

*polica f^[1]

1. shelf, ledge (a board providing surface for storing or displaying objects)

• *polъka

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: полица (polica)
    • Belarusian: палі́ца (palíca)
    • Russian: поли́ца (políca)
    • Ukrainian: поли́ця (polýcja)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Old Cyrillic script: полица (polica)

  • Bulgarian: поли́ца (políca)
  • Macedonian: полица (polica)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: по̀лица

    Latin script: pòlica

  • Slovene: políca (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: police
  • Polish: polica (dialectal or obsolete)
  • Slovak: polica
  • Sorbian:
    • Upper Sorbian: polca
    • Lower Sorbian: polica

• Non-Slavic
  • → Hungarian: polc
  • → Romanian: poliță

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “поли́ца”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Duridanov, I. V., Racheva, M., Todorov, T. A., editors (1996), “поли́ца”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 5 (падѐж – пỳска), Sofia: Prof. Marin Drinov Pubg. House, →ISBN, page 500