Osobisty

Osobisty is a Polish adjective meaning personal or private, relating to a person or belonging to an individual. It is used to describe aspects tied to a person, such as personal characteristics, private life, or material tied to a specific individual. The term originates from osoba, meaning person, and it follows standard Polish adjective inflection, agreeing with the gender and number of the noun it modifies.

Common phrases include życie osobiste (private life), dane osobiste or dane osobowe (personal data), kontakt osobisty (personal contact), and sprawa osobista (private matter). In everyday language, osobiste is often used in contrast to public or official terms, though its precise nuance can vary by context.

A related opposition is between osobisty and prywatny. While both can translate to private, osobisty emphasizes a relation to the person or things directly connected to an individual, whereas prywatny more often stresses privacy or non-public status. In legal and administrative contexts, the preferred term for data linked to a person is dane osobowe (personal data), a standard expression in Polish privacy law and GDPR discussions; dane osobiste is also understood but less formal in regulatory settings.

In technology, the compound form komputer osobisty is used for “personal computer,” illustrating how osobisty remains productive in modern terminology. Overall, osobisty functions across everyday speech, media, and formal discourse to denote attributes, matters, or data that pertain to a specific individual.