Tourism in rural areas in Poland – the origins and evolution The author distinguishes four phases of tourism development in rural areas in Poland, starting from 1873. Each phase is described in terms of the main elements of the tourist infrastructure, the main factors of tourism development and its organization. Moreover, the author analyzes the terminology regarding rural tourism for individual phases, used in literature. The development of tourism in rural areas is different in each phase and largely depends on the political, social and economic situation of the country. There are also differences in terminology. A more detailed analysis allowed the author to construct a model of evolution of the terminology regarding tourism in rural areas in Poland. The model shows that originally terminology was semantically related to tourism participants (summer lodgings), later – to the place of recreation (rural tourism), and at present – to the function of the place (agro-tourism). Nowadays we observe a considerable variety of terminology; many of the already existing terms are still used, new ones are appearing and some are gradually disappearing (e.g. summer lodgings). Keywords: tourism, stages of rural tourism development, evolution of the terms