Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22210/jezik.2026.73.02
Awareness of the meaning Croatian synonyms stid and sram
Zrinka Jelaska
Abstract
This paper explores the difference between the Croatian synonyms stid and sram, which
are somewhat equivalent to English shame. Both can be traced back to Proto-Slavic time
and have survived to the present day in Croatian and some other Slavic languages. Those
nouns and the members of their families, i.e., verbs, adjectives, adverbs and new nouns
derived from them, are often interchangeable in the same context. Therefore, the method
of contrasting all the members of the Croatian words’ families and observing lexical gaps
is used to understand the basic differences in meaning. Several Croatian dictionaries have
been consulted, but they do not provide clear explanations of the differences between these
synonyms, as there are no Croatian learners’ dictionaries or dictionaries of synonyms.
The analysis shows that there is only sramota ‘a dishonourable act, shameful act’, but not
*stidota; only osramotiti ‘to completely disgrace someone’, but not *ostidjeti, Furthermore,
stidnica is a female genital organ and could not be called *sramnica (this possibility makes
native speakers laugh). Hence, one feels sram when he or she violates the rules imposed by
the society and stid when he or she, his or her feelings, body, or even talents (like singing
or poetry) are unwillingly exposed to others.
Keywords
Croatian synonyms stid and sram; (shame); semantics; synonyms; lexical gaps; semantic awareness
Hrčak ID:
350186
URI
Publication date:
1.2.2026.
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