Polish

To make something smooth and shiny by rubbing, or a substance used for this purpose.

This word comes from Old French 'poliss-' meaning 'to make smooth,' which traces back to Latin 'polire' (to smooth, polish). Here's the surprise: it's completely unrelated to Poland or Polish people! The country name comes from the Slavic tribe 'Polanie' meaning 'field dwellers.' The identical spelling is pure coincidence — one of English's most confusing homonyms where two totally different word origins crashed into the same spelling.