postavou

Postavou is a word form used in Czech and Slovak that derives from the noun postava, meaning body, figure, or silhouette. Postava has two main senses in these languages: a person’s physique and, in literary contexts, a character in a story. Postavou is the instrumental singular form and is used to describe someone’s physical appearance or build, indicating the manner in which a person appears rather than their personality.

In descriptive prose, journalism, and biographical writing, postavou serves to emphasize the physique when discussing how someone looks or to compare someone’s build with a familiar type. It often appears in phrases or constructions that convey “in terms of build” or “with a figure of.” For example, speakers may talk about having a certain build, or about someone appearing in a particular way because of their physique.

The word’s usage is similar in Czech and Slovak, with only minor stylistic differences between the languages. In everyday speech, the noun postava is common for referring to a person’s body, while postavou as a grammatical form is more typical in descriptive or literary contexts. The same root word also supports the sense of “character” when referring to a person in a story, though this sense relies on different grammatical usage and context.

In sum, postavou is a grammatical form tied to the noun postava and is primarily used to describe physical appearance or build, rather than personality, in Czech and Slovak. It remains a versatile term in both languages for conveying how someone looks or what their physique suggests.