nekad

Nekad is an adverb used in several South Slavic languages, notably Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, and Montenegrin, with the meaning “at some time in the past,” “formerly,” or “once.” It is common in everyday speech and in literature. In standard writing nekada is often viewed as the formal variant, while nekad is considered colloquial or regional. The two forms are generally interchangeable in many contexts.

Nekad appears in common phrases such as nekad davno (long ago) and nekad prije (formerly). It can be used in temporal contrasts, for example nekad i danas to refer to something that existed in the past and is being compared to the present. The word is etymologically related to nekada; nekad is a contracted form that arose through colloquial speech in several dialects.

In usage, nekad is especially common in casual speech and informal writing, whereas nekada may be preferred in formal prose. The term has no widely recognized independent meaning beyond its adverbial use; it is not a proper noun, and there are no widely known entities historically named Nekad.

See also: nekada, ponekad, sometimes in Slavic languages. References: standard dictionaries of the respective languages treat nekad as a colloquial variant of nekada.