‹ Back to the text
прекрасный
adjective, masculine singular nominative
- beautiful, wonderful
- magnificent, splendid
- fine, excellent
Built from
- пре- — prefix · very, excessively
Intensifying prefix from Old Church Slavic, originally denoting 'through' or 'beyond', later used for emphasis. Cognate with Latin prae- (before, in front).
- крас- — root · shine, red
From PIE *k̑ers- (to shine). The association of redness with beauty and splendor is typical of early Slavic aesthetics.
- -н- — stem · adjective stem-forming
Common adjectival suffix forming qualitative adjectives from roots.
- -ый — ending · masculine singular nominative
Standard ending for hard-stem adjectives in masculine singular nominative.
Etymology. From Old Church Slavic прѣ- (prefix meaning 'very, excessively') + красный (red, beautiful). The root красный derives from PIE *k̑ers- (to shine), cognate with Latin crēdō (to believe; originally 'to see'), and English 'crash' (bright sound). The prefix прѣ- conveys intensification; the semantic shift from 'red' to 'beautiful' reflects how redness was aesthetically prized in Slavic tradition.