Zdrav

Zdrav is a word found in several South Slavic languages, meaning healthy or healthy-looking. It functions mainly as an adjective and varies by gender and number. In Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian, the masculine singular form is zdrav, the feminine form zdrava, and the neuter form zdravo. In Slovene and Macedonian, similar gendered forms exist. In Bulgarian, the masculine form is zdrav, with feminine zdrava and neuter zdravo.

The noun for health also exists in these languages but in distinct terms. In Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian the noun is zdravlje; in Slovenian it is zdravje; in Bulgarian it is здраве (zdrave). The root zdrav is widely used to form related medical and public-health terms, such as health-related prefixes and compounds (for example, zdravstven- in Serbo-Croatian languages denotes “health-” or “medical”).

Zdrav is closely connected to cognates across Slavic languages. Similar roots appear in Russian as zdrav/zdor and in Polish as zdrow- or zdrowy, reflecting a common Proto-Slavic heritage that ties vitality and health to everyday speech. These cognates illustrate how the concept of health is encoded in basic vocabulary across the language family.

Beyond its descriptive use, zdrow appears in common phrases. The greeting Zdravo, meaning hello, is widely used in Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Macedonian. Imperatives and wishes such as budite zdravi (“be healthy”) are also standard, showing how the term permeates daily language.