Where does “alek” come from?

alek (Polish) comes from Polish Ale, from Old Polish ale, from Proto-Slavic ale — but, however.

Ancestry of “alek”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1PolishAlebut
2Old PolishaleIntroduces a contrastive clause; but
3Proto-Slavicalebut, however
Every word from Proto-Slavic ale →Every word from Old Polish ale →Every word from Polish Ale →