13th-century, borrowed from Old East Slavic краса (krasa, “beauty, splendor”) (compare Russian краса́ (krasá)), also related to Latvian karsts. 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 Russian краска (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).