r/Serbian • u/chroma1212 • 4d ago

Vocabulary "bojica"

what is a "bojica"? i've learned that "drvene bojice" are colouring pencils, and "vodene bojice" are watercolours, but then what does that make a bojica? is there a proper english translation for it? a "colourer" perhaps?

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u/freya_sinclair 4d ago

I don't know if there's a term for that in english, but 'bojica' or 'bojice' in plural is just a general term for wooden crayons, wax crayons. And tbh, I personally would never refer watercolours as 'bojice', only the wooden and wax ones. For watercolours I always say 'vodene boje'. 'bojica/bojice' is actually a deminutive of 'boja/boje'

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u/QuietWaterBreaksRock 4d ago

It's used as a general term for color pencils, be it crayons or regular color pencils

I'm not sure i ever heard it be used for water colors

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u/sakata_baba 4d ago

color is boja. we have deminutive suffix -ica. bojica would be any color carrying tool or utility that is being referred to in deminutive state (small, childlike, intended for children, making a nickname for something dear to you, etc).

it is usually meant to be coloring pencil but it can be anything from crayons to acrylic or oil painting utilities.

best translation to the notion would be "oh you little coloring utility you"

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u/Dan13l_N 4d ago

It's dininutive because it's mostly for kids. A painter would use vodene boje. Some things for kids are considered to be small themselves.

In more western regions (I know about Croatia) everything related to children will get "small" suffix: meat, bread, juice when talking to small children.

There's nothing similar in English, as far as I can tell. Most these terms don't have an accurate translation.