# BCS: to paint



## Sane Helle

Zdravo svima,

I'm getting a little confused with all the different words that can be used to express this one action : to paint.
Even more so that there are differences between eastern and western words.

I heard : *
- farbati* : I think this one is rather eastern, I didn't find it in Croatian dictionaries
- _*obojiti*_ ?
- _*ličiti*_ : rather western?
- _*slikati*_ : this one seems to focus on art painting, but can mean "taking pictures" too, right?
- _*premazati *_?
- a last one which I can't remember right now, but I've been told it's used for wall painting

Heeeelp!


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## sokol

Well, "farbati" certainly is a German loan - probably it is used more by Serbians, I wouldn't know (as Croatian is more puristic), but I guess even in Serbian it is considered colloquial.

To the rest I can't add anything useful.


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## texpert

Sane Helle said:


> - _*premazati *_?
> - a last one which I can't remember right now, but I've been told it's used for wall painting


 
Is it? I'd like to have this confirmed (and then go straight to false friends thread


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## slavic_one

Yes, _farbati_ is germanism.
_obojiti_ is perfective - to color / paint / stain. _Bojati_ (imperfect) - same as _farbati_: coloring. _Bojati_ = _premazivati_ bojom. Boja = colour. _Mazati _is putting on (with brush or sth) paint, glue, eggs (on cakes)....
_ličiti_ = painting walls
_slikati_ = making paintings / taking photos
_crtati _= drawing


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## slavic_one

texpert said:


> Is it? I'd like to have this confirmed (and then go straight to false friends thread



*Mazati* je to samo jako v češtině.


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## texpert

well in Czech it has to do more with _smearing_ I should think


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## slavic_one

texpert said:


> well in Czech it has to do more with _smearing_ I should think



Same.


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## Sane Helle

Thank you for your help!

So, just to make it really clear, _farbati_ is also used in Croatia, but only in colloquial talk? What would be the standard verb?


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## slavic_one

Sane Helle said:


> Thank you for your help!
> 
> So, just to make it really clear, _farbati_ is also used in Croatia, but only in colloquial talk? What would be the standard verb?



Yes. Standard is "bojati".


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## phosphore

_Bojati_? In Serbia it is _bojiti_, while _ličiti_ (with the short falling accent on the first syllable?) is not used at all.



Sane Helle said:


> Zdravo svima,
> 
> I'm getting a little confused with all the different words that can be used to express this one action : to paint.
> Even more so that there are differences between eastern and western words.
> 
> I heard :
> _*- farbati*_ : I think this one is rather eastern, I didn't find it in Croatian dictionaries
> - _*obojiti*_ ?
> - _*ličiti*_ : rather western?
> - _*slikati*_ : this one seems to focus on art painting, but can mean "taking pictures" too, right?
> - _*premazati *_?
> - a last one which I can't remember right now, but I've been told it's used for wall painting
> 
> Heeeelp!


 
Here is what I know about these verbs:

_farbati_ - to colour the walls, fences, boats, etc., also _ofarbati, prefarbati_, related to _farba_ - liquid paint
_bojiti_ - to colour, also _obojiti, prebojiti_, related to _boja_ - paint
_ličiti_ - not used in Serbia; there is a homograph _ličiti_ - to look alike, but it is pronounced differently (former with the short falling accent on the first syllable, the latter with the long rising accent)
_slikati_ - to paint artistically, to take photos, also _oslikati, preslikati, uslikati_
_mazati_ - to colour the walls, fences, boats, but somewhat pejorative, also _premazati_


It is pretty much the same Slavic One said.


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## slavic_one

Yes, both _bojati_ (not confuse with _bojati se_ = to be afraid) and _bojiti_.
Also, _ličiti_ can have 2nd meaning = to look alike.


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## Sane Helle

I remember the last one! It's _*krečiti*_. That's the one I was told was used specifically to talk about wall painting. Is it the case? Is it also used in Croatia?

Thank you for your help!


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## slavic_one

_Krečiti_ is only _bojati krečem_. Kreč is plaster.


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## phosphore

*Kreč *is, actually, _lime_, which is used in _plasters, cements_ etc. _*Krečiti*_ is _to lime, to whitewash_.


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## Duya

But in modern colloquial Serbian, kreciti refers to any wall whitewashing (typically with "semi-dispersive" paints); lime is seldom used nowadays.


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## phosphore

I agree; I thought that _to whitewash_ means all that.


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## natasha2000

> _mazati_ - to colour the walls, fences, boats, but somewhat pejorative, also _premazati_


Mazati is a verb that originally means to smear, but it is ALSO used to indicate the action of putting the color somewhere, whether the walls or artistic painting. It is a kind of pejorative when used for artistic painting, because it is more linked to whitewashing, so if you say to a painter that he maže and not slika, you are telling him that his work isn't anything exceptional. On th eother hand, mazati also refers to big paintbrush movements, and nowadays there are also many painters that don't even use paintbrushes for artistic painting, but for whitewash etc. so they do rather mažu and not slikaju... 

But be careful, mazati meaning farbati/krečiti is coloquial and it isu usally more used for other types of smearing actions, like mazati puter/džem/sir, etc na hleb (smear butter/jam/cheese on the piece of bread), or mazati kremom lice/telo (to smear/put cream on the face/body), or whatever else that includes smearing...

Krečiti is used only for walls.
Farbati is used for walls, but also for doors, cars, bird houses, clothes, or whatever that needs to be painted. If it is clothes, then you also can use the verb bojiti/obojiti.


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## Sane Helle

Thank you all for your explanations! It helped me understand the subtleties of the notion. It's really interesting to discover a linguistic system that differs so much from my native language on a notional level.
In French, only the context can tell whether we talk about  art painting or wall painting.
On the other hand, we have a specific word for taking a picture. We also mark the difference between painting and colouring.
All in all, painting includes everything that is done with paint. And there is only one word for it, at least in everyday language.

Anyway, thanks to you, I think I can now connect the French notion of painting to the BCS notion. Hvala puno!


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## natasha2000

> On the other hand, we have a specific word for taking a picture.



Of course, Serbian language, too. It is fotografisati. But it is just more common to hear slikati. The same goes for fotografija -- photo(graphy) -- but it is more common to say just -- slika.


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## WannaBeMe

slavic_one said:


> Yes, _farbati_ is germanism.
> _obojiti_ is perfective - to color / paint / stain. _Bojati_ (imperfect) - same as _farbati_: coloring. _Bojati_ = _premazivati_ bojom. Boja = colour. _Mazati _is putting on (with brush or sth) paint, glue, eggs (on cakes)....
> _ličiti_ = painting walls
> _slikati_ = making paintings / taking photos
> _crtati _= drawing



Bojati or bojiti is also not a pure Slavic word. Boja is turkish loanword.
It seams that we dont have anymore "our" word for paint...hmmm.


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