hraniti

Hraniti is a common verb in South Slavic languages, including Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Slovenian. It means to feed or nourish someone or something, to provide sustenance over time. The verb is used for people and animals and can appear in medical or agricultural contexts, where it denotes supplying food or nutrients, sometimes through artificial means in the case of patients.

Etymology and form: hraniti derives from the noun hrana, meaning food, with a basic verb-forming suffix. It is a cognate across related languages in the area and shares the core idea of providing sustenance or support.

Usage: Hraniti is transitive and typically takes a direct object referring to the recipient of nourishment. Examples include hraniti dijete (to feed a child), hraniti stoku (to feed livestock), or hraniti pacijenta (to feed a patient, including artificial feeding). In a broader sense, it can also mean to provide ongoing support or resources to a person, family, or institution.

Reflexive and related forms: The reflexive form hraniti se can appear in some contexts meaning to feed oneself or to subsist, though in everyday Croatian, the simpler jesti (to eat) is often more common for self-feeding. Related nouns include hrana (food) and hranjenje (the act of feeding or nourishment), while hranitelj refers to a feeder or provider.

See also: hrana, hranjenje, hranitelj, hraniteljstvo.

In summary, hraniti denotes the action of supplying nourishment and can be used for people, animals, and, in specialized contexts, patients, with broader figurative use to indicate sustaining or supporting—economically or logistically—an entity over time.