Proverbs are of great interest, they contain rich cultural material. The article considers the proverbs with ethnonyms in the languages of the Central European area. The aim of the study is an attempt to recreate a picture of the world of ethnoses of this area and to demonstrate the perception of themselves and other ethnic groups inhabiting the territory of Central Europe, which makes this study relevant. The object of the research is ethnic stereotypes in the paremiological fund. On the basis of the theoretical works on the studied issues and the comparative analysis of the selected material from the dictionaries, the author concluded that the stereotyped image of another ethnic group depends largely on historical causes and may include both positive and negative characteristics. The autostereotype is often positive. The analyzed fragment of the linguistic picture of the world is in many ways archaic. The life of people has radically changed, that is reflected in the language picture of the world. In the future, the author intends to include the results of a survey of representatives of the Central European language area in the current study.