Odbycia

Odbycia is a Polish term used primarily in legal and administrative language to refer to the act or process of serving a penalty or fulfilling a duty imposed by a court or authority. The base verb is odbyć, meaning to perform, to serve, or to carry out. The noun odbycie is the standard form, and odbycia appears in inflected phrases such as odbycie kary, where the phrase denotes the serving of a sentence. In general use, odbycie marks the period during which a punishment is carried out and the completion of that punishment.

In criminal law, odbycie kary encompasses time spent in prison, under house arrest, or under alternative punishments like community service or electronic monitoring. When the designated term ends, the sentence is considered fulfilled and the offender is released from custody, subject to any further legal conditions. Administrative contexts may refer to the liczba dni odbytych (the number of days served) as part of the official record.

Beyond sentences, odbycie can refer more broadly to fulfilling formal obligations imposed by authorities, such as internships, training requirements, or other duties. In such cases, more specific phrases are often used, for example odbyte praktyki or odbyte staże, to indicate completed placements. Etymologically, odbycia derives from odbyć, with the standard construction odbycia kary common in formal Polish texts. Related terms include wykonanie kary, zakończenie kary, and related forms describing the status after the completion of punishment.