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Some of the oldest French-language mentions of this supposedly Polish starter use the spellings "''poolisch''" or "''polisch''" (with "sch"), which suggests an alternative version of the above etymology. Namely, that the word comes not from English, but from German. But isn't the German word for "Polish" written as "''polnisch''", with an "N"? Yes, it is in modern Standard German; but in 19th-century southern dialects (used in Austria), the same adjective could be written without the "N", as "''polisch''", "''pohlisch''" or "''pollisch''". And some of these spellings can be found in the context of bread starterstarters. For example, an 1865 advertisement for St. Marxer, a Viennese brand of pressed yeast, mentions a "''Polisch''" method. The word, in this sense, seems to have been largely forgotten in German with time, but even a century later a German breadmaking handbook still talked about a "''polische''" bread dough:

But this is still no proof for the method having been developed in Poland. Dr Matthew Baerman, in his article for the linguistic blog ''Morph'', suggests that name may have come from a mental association made between the loose starter and the famous Polish fermented-rye-meal soup called "''żur''" (pronounced ''zhoor'') or "''żurek''" (''{{small|ZHOO}}-reck'') - even though the soup is made from diluted sourdough rather than a yeast starter.<ref> {{Cyt

}}</ref> What Dr Baerman may have been unawre of is that the word "''Nota beneżurek''" also has a special meaning in Polish baking terminology, o&nbsp;czym dr Baerman mógł nie wiedzieć, słowo „żurek” w&nbsp;polskiej terminologii piekarskiej oznacza rodzaj wstępnego zakwasu where it refers to a loose sourdough starter. But this is a kind of starter Polish bakers use to make ''chleb'' (czyli półkwasupronounced ''h'lep'') o&nbsp;płynnej konsystencji. Ale takiego żurku używa się do wyrobu chlebów z&nbsp;mąki żytniej na zakwasie, a&nbsp;nie do drożdżowego pieczywa pszennegosourdough rye bread, not for white yeast rolls. Istnieją wprawdzie pieczywa mieszane, pszennoMixed rye-żytnie, do których używa się zarówno żurku, jak i&nbsp;podmłody, ale nawet wtedy żurek przygotowuje się osobno z&nbsp;mąki żytniejwheat breads are common in Poland, but even then you would prepare a rye sourdough starter and a&nbsp;podmłodę – osobno z&nbsp;mąki pszennejwheat yeast pre-ferment separately..<ref>{{Cyt

W każdym razieWhatever the case, jak przyznaje sam dr Dr Baerman, sugestia, że słowo „''poolish''” nawiązuje do polskości żurku, ma jedną zasadniczą wadę: brak na nią żadnego potwierdzenia w&nbsp;źródłachadmits that "this theory has the minor drawback of lacking any positive evidence in its favor."