# Robit, robota



## Tagarela

Ahoj, 

Based on this thread, I would like to know in which situations I should use *robit/robota* instead of pracovat/ práce. Only in compulsory manual works? Or any hard work...for example, if someone works very hard, no matter the area, could I use *robit/robota* to talk about it?

Na shledanou.:


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## kelt

Hey,

I don't think that _robit_ is a Czech word ;-)

As has been noted in the Slovak thread, _robota_ means drudgery. And as such it should be used - I won't be far from the truth saying that you don't come upon the word drudgery very often...

In my experience, we say _robota_ only when referring to feudal times when work was compulsory for subjects on fiefs (pieces of land owned by a lord). Then the verb would be _robotovat kde / na čem_.


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## Jana337

You can hear both words quite frequently in the Silesian dialect (a Polish influence). 
_Kde robíš (or, to be phonetically more precise, robiš)? - Kde pracuješ?
Zítra (zitra) nejdu do roboty. - Zítra nejdu do práce._
In this sense, "robota" fully replaces "práce" and does not imply "drudgery".
"Zarobit", for example, means to earn.
_Člověk se tam nadře, ale i dobře zarobí. - You toil there but you earn quite well.
_
There are other dialectal verbs derived from "robit" but also one very important non-dialectal one - vyrobit, to produce.
Another non-dialectal but rather literary word is "porobit", to enslave, to subjugate.


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## jazyk

> Another non-dialectal but rather literary word is "porobit", to enslave, to subjugate.


Which, by the way, is related to Russian раб (slave).


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## slavic_one

jazyk said:


> Which, by the way, is related to Russian раб (slave).



Just for the info, in Croatian we say "rob" for a slave, and "to enslave" is "zarobiti" or also "porobiti".


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## werrr

The verb "robiti" is obsolete in Czech. The old meanings are:

1) to work hard
2) to use for hard work, torment (vola robiti = to use the ox for hard work)
3) to enslave, to defeat



			
				jazyk said:
			
		

> Which, by the way, is related to Russian раб (slave).


We have the word "rab" as well.



			
				slavic_one said:
			
		

> Just for the info, in Croatian we say "rob" for a slave...


In old Czech there was the word "rob" with the meaning "son/descendant/scion/successor". We still have the cognate "robě/robátko" (= baby).


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## kelt

werrr said:


> The verb "robiti" is obsolete in Czech. The old meanings are:
> 
> 1) to work hard
> 2) to use for hard work, torment (vola robiti = to use the ox for hard work)
> 3) to enslave, to defeat
> 
> 
> We have the word "rab" as well.
> 
> 
> In old Czech there was the word "rob" with the meaning "son/descendant/scion/successor". We still have the cognate "robě/robátko" (= baby).



I am sorry, I did not know about these words. Except for _rab_, it is used in crosswords ;-)


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## Tagarela

Ahoj,



kelt said:


> I am sorry, I did not know about these words. Except for _rab_, it is used in crosswords ;-)



O, it seem really a rare word, I've looked in some dictionaries (English-Czech and Spanish-Czech) and I only found *otrok*. 

Perhaps it's something to be added in the Wordreference's dictionary (which shows only *otrok* too)

Na shledanou.:


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## K.u.r.t

Honestly the dictionary would have to grow tenfold or more if all the slang, archaic and dialect vocabulary were to be included


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