13th-century, borrowed from Old East Slavicкраса(krasa, “beauty, splendor”) (compare Russianкраса́(krasá)), which comes from Proto-Indo-European *ker-(“to burn, to glow”) (whence also Latviankarsts). Initially used in the Eastern regions, this word only penetrated further into the language in the 18th century, at first with the meaning “healthy, pretty facial color.” At the beginning of the 19th century, under the influence of Russianкраска(kraska, “paint”), it acquired the sense “(natural) color of an object.”. In the second half of the 19th century, the meaning of krāsa was broadened, in order to replace the Germanism pērve, perve(“paint”) (still attested in dialects).[1]
