osob

Osob is a linguistic form that appears in several Slavic languages as a case form of the noun meaning "person" or "individual." It is most commonly encountered in Polish, Czech, and Slovak, where it represents the genitive plural of the base noun and is used in contexts that quantify or describe groups of people.

In Polish, the dictionary form is osoba (a person). The genitive plural form is osób, written with an acute on the o. This form is used after numerals and prepositions to indicate quantity or origin of people, for example: dwie osoby (two people), trzech osób (three people), z osób (from people), kilka osób (a few people). The unaccented variant osob may appear in text without diacritics, but the standard Polish spelling uses osób.

In Czech and Slovak, the corresponding genitive plural is often written as osob or osôb, with diacritics in proper orthography (osôb in Slovak). It also occurs after numerals and in prepositional phrases, such as bez osob (without people) or více osob (more people). When diacritics are removed in plain text, the form tends to appear as osob.

Etymology and cognates trace back to the common Slavic root for “person” (osoba in several languages), with further connections to Proto-Slavic and, through historical contact, Latin-based lexical layers in some regions. The exact spelling and diacritical marks vary by language, but the underlying meaning remains the same: a plural reference to people.