prastas

Prastas is a Lithuanian adjective meaning poor, low-quality, or inferior. It is used to describe objects, situations, performances, or behavior that are considered unsatisfactory or lacking in quality. The word is common in both everyday speech and written language and can describe tangible things as well as abstract concepts, such as prastas oras meaning bad weather or prastas elgesys meaning poor conduct.

In use, prastas conveys a negative evaluation of quality or condition. It can modify nouns in various contexts, from consumer items to actions or outcomes. For example, prastas darbas refers to work of substandard quality, while prastas filmas would describe a film judged as poor. The term often conveys a matter-of-fact assessment rather than a strongly condemnatory tone, depending on context and intonation.

Morphologically, prastas is a standard Lithuanian adjective that agrees with the gender and number of the noun it modifies. It forms the typical comparative and superlative degrees used with adjectives in Lithuanian when needed, and it can appear in both formal and informal registers.

Etymologically, prastas is of native Lithuanian origin, with long-standing usage in the language to express substandard quality or unfavorable conditions. It is part of a broader semantic field that includes synonyms such as blogas (bad), menkas (meager), and žemesnis (lower), though each has its own nuances.

Translations of prastas include poor, low-quality, substandard, and inferior. The adverbial form is prastai, used to describe actions done poorly. See also related terms for expressing quality judgments in Lithuanian.