uudenvuodenaatto

MEANING:

Compound term (noun): New Year’s Eve

DERIVED FROM:

Uudenvuodenaatto can be broken down into uuden (genitive of ”uusi” which means ”new”) + vuoden (genitive of ”vuosi” which means ”year”) + aatto (”eve”).

EXTRA CREDIT:

A popular New Year’s Eve game in Finland is the casting of tin. People melt small pieces of tin shaped like miniature horseshoes. They then pour the molten tin into cold water so it hardens into a clump. The shape of the clump is open to interpretation and is said to predict the future. If the clump is broken into pieces it can mean bad luck.

ilotulitus

ilotulitus

MEANING:

Noun: fireworks; pyrotechnics.

You will also see in store displays for ilotulitteita, which is partitive plural of ilotulite. These words refer to fireworks as a consumer product.

DERIVED FROM:

Ilotulitus comes from ilo (”joy,” ”delight” or ”happiness”) + tulitus (”firing” the action or ”fire” bullets of projectiles from a gun)

Tulitus comes from the verb tulittaa (“to fire”).

EXTRA CREDIT:

In Finland, conventional consumer fireworks (other than novelty fireworks and sparklers) are sold to the public only between Christmas and New Years, and their use is allowed only on New Year’s Eve from 6 pm until 2 am the following morning.

kansi

kansi

MEANING:

Noun: lid, top, cover.

(Meanings vary from ”cover of a book” to ”deck of a ship” as well as the top you put on a cup of coffee to keep it from spilling.)

kuutio

kuutio

MEANING:

Noun: cube.

(Or as an adjective or part of a compound term, ”cubic.”)

EXTRA CREDIT:

A related verb is kuutioida, which means ”to dice” or ”to cut into cubes.”

In mathematics kuutioda means ”to cube.” (In arithmetic and algebra, the cube of a number n is its third power — the result of the number multiplied by itself twice.)

latva

latva

MEANING:

Noun: tree top; headwaters.

EXTRA CREDIT:

The star on the top of a Christmas tree would be said to be located kuusen latvassa.

joulumuori

joulumuori

MEANING:

Compound term (noun): Mrs. Claus, the wife of Santa Claus. (In Finland, the wife of joulupukki.)

DERIVED FROM:

Joulumuori comes from joulu (”Christmas”) + muori (”an old mother” or ”a grandma”).

paketointi

paketointi

MEANING:

Noun: packaging, wrapping.

In our example, the phrase paketointipalvelu means ”gift wrapping service.” (The hyphen is there because the compound term is broken onto two lines.)

DERIVED FROM:

Paketointi comes from the verb paketoida (”to pack,” ”to bundle” or ”to wrap”) + the suffix‎ –nti used to make action noun from verbs whose citation form ends with a diphthong + -da/-dä.

EXTRA CREDIT:

You may see the phrase ”lahjojen paketointi,” which means ”gift wrapping.”

nuottiteline

music stand

MEANING:

Noun: music stand

DERIVED FROM:

Nuottiteline is a compound term that comes from nuotti (”a music note”) plus teline (”stand” or ”rack” in singular, or ”scaffold” in plural.)

EXTRA CREDIT:

Teline appears in many compound words. Here are a few others:

kiipeilyteline – jungle gym
pyykinkuivausteline – clothes drying rack
kirjateline – book rack
maalausteline – easel
(matka)tavarateline – luggage rack

sormenjälki

sormenjälki

MEANING:

Compound term (noun): fingerprint.

DERIVED FROM:

Sormenjälki is a compound term made from sormen, genitive of sormi which means ”finger” plus jälki which means ”trace,” ”mark,” ”track” or ”print.”

EXTRA CREDIT:

To say ”to take fingerprints” or use ”fingerprint” as a verb, you would say ”Ottaa sormenjäljet”