Editing Minsk (section)

== Etymology and historical names ==
[[File:Church of Saints Simon and Helena, 15, Soviet str., Minsk - the capital of Republic of Belarus 04.JPG|thumb|[[Independence Square, Minsk|Independence Square]] in the centre of Minsk]]
The [[Old East Slavic]] name of the town was {{Lang|orv|Мѣньскъ}} ({{Lang|orv-Latn|Měnsk}} &lt; [[Proto-Slavic language|Early Proto-Slavic]] or [[Proto-Indo-European language|Late Indo-European]] {{Lang|sla-x-proto|Mēnĭskŭ|italic=yes}}), derived from a river name ''Měn'' (&lt;&nbsp;{{Lang|orv-Latn|Mēnŭ}}).{{fact|date=January 2025}}
The resulting{{clarify|date=August 2020}} form of the name, ''Minsk'' (spelled either {{lang|ru-petr1708|Минскъ}} or {{Lang|ru-petr1708|Мѣнскъ}}), was taken over both in Russian (modern spelling: {{Lang|ru|Минск}}) and Polish ({{Lang|pl|Mińsk}}), and under the [[Russification of Belarus|influence of Russian]] this form also became official in Belarusian.  The direct continuation of the name in Belarusian is {{Lang|be|Miensk}} ({{wikt-lang|be|Менск}}, {{IPA|be|ˈmʲɛnsk|IPA}}),<ref>{{cite web |script-title=be:Происхождение названия Минска. |url=https://govorim.by/minskaya-oblast/minsk/stati-o-minske/7824-proishozhdenie-nazvaniya-minska.html |access-date=30 May 2019 |website=Городские порталы Беларуси – Govorim.by}}</ref> which some Belarusian-speakers continue to use as their preferred name for the city.<ref>{{cite web |script-title=ru:79-лет назад Верховный совет БССР переименовал Менск в Минск |url=https://belsat.eu/ru/news/79-let-nazad-verhovnyj-sovet-bssr-pereimenoval-mensk-v-minsk/ |access-date=30 May 2019 |website=belsat.eu |language=ru-RU |archive-date=30 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190530103216/https://belsat.eu/ru/news/79-let-nazad-verhovnyj-sovet-bssr-pereimenoval-mensk-v-minsk/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

When Belarus was under Polish rule, the names {{Lang|pl|Mińsk Litewski}} ('Minsk of [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuania]]') and {{Lang|pl|Mińsk Białoruski}} ('Minsk of Belarus') were used to differentiate this place name from {{Lang|pl|[[Mińsk Mazowiecki]]}} 'Minsk in [[Masovia]]'. In modern Polish, {{Lang|pl|Mińsk}} without an attribute usually refers to the city in Belarus, which is about 50 times bigger than Mińsk Mazowiecki; (compare [[Brest, Belarus|Brest-Litovsk]] and [[Brześć Kujawski]] for a similar case).<ref>{{cite web |title=Wirtualny Mińsk Mazowiecki |url=https://minskmaz.com/ |access-date=30 May 2019 |website=minskmaz.com}}</ref>