Místem

Místem is the instrumental singular of the Czech noun místo, meaning place or location. In standard usage, it denotes the role or function of a place within a phrase and appears in a range of fixed constructions. The noun místо is masculine inanimate and, apart from the instrumental form, is declined like other masculine nouns in Czech.

The instrumental form místem is used in phrases that express the function or site of an action or state. Common examples include místem činu, meaning the scene of the crime, and místem konání, meaning the venue or site where an event is held. Another frequent construction is místem bydliště, referring to a person’s place of residence. These phrases often occur alongside prepositions or possessive elements to specify what role the place plays.

Etymology and related forms: místо derives from Proto-Slavic mьstь and has cognates in several Slavic languages (for example Russian mesto, Polish miejsce, Slovene mesto). In Czech, the base meaning is the generic notion of a spatial location, while the instrumental místem is used to express function, attribution, or designation of that location within a broader expression.

See also: místnost, místo, lokace. Note that while místem is tied to location expressions, its use is largely contextual and tied to common collocations such as místem činu, místem konání, and místem bydliště.