MEANING:
Verb: to throw or slam something repeatedly.
Paiskia appears in our example photo in the 1st person singular past tense, paiskin.
DERIVED FROM:
Paiskia is the frequentative form of paiskata, which means ”to throw or slam with force.”
EXTRA CREDIT:
There is a double meaning in the cartoon frame shown in our picture because ”paiskia töitä” is an idiomatic phrase that means ”to work hard.” (Töitä is partitive plural of työ, which means ”work”). In this cartoon, the other frames show the guy throwing things around in his office, so in addition to the idiomatic meaning of ”I worked hard all day” it suggests the literal meaning of the word paiskia, suggesting ”I threw things around at work all day.”
MEANING:
Adjective: Decent, good, fine, proper.
In our example, kelpo työtä means ”decent work.”
EXTRA CREDIT:
A related word is kelpoisuus which means ”eligibility” or ”validity.” Or in biology, ”fitness.”
MEANING:
Verb: to rush, to fall, to plunge.
Syöksyä appears in our example in the 3rd person singular past tense, syöksyi.
DERIVED FROM:
Syöksyä was originally a passive verb.
EXTRA CREDIT:
Let’s translate the whole headline, ”Auto syöksyi mereen. Mieskuljettaja hukkui Lauttasaaressa.” or ”Car plunged into the sea. Male driver drowned in Lauttasaari.
MEANING:
Noun: amusement, entertainment.
In our example, huvitus appears in the partitive singular, huvitusta.
DERIVED FROM:
Huvitus comes from huvi, another noun meaning ”amusement” or ”pleasure.”
EXTRA CREDIT:
Let’s translate the phrase, ”Vähän mielihuvitusta” which literally translates as ”A little mind amusement.” However, there is a bit of a play on words going on because mielihuvitus is only one letter off from mielikuvitus which means ”imagination.”
MEANING:
Noun: theft, larceny.
Varkaus appears in our example in the nominative plural, varkaudet as part of the compound word polkupyörävarkaudet, which means ”bicycle thefts.”
DERIVED FROM:
Varkaus comes from varas (”thief”)+ -uus (a suffix often used to create nouns from adjectives, though in this case it helps create another, similar noun.)
EXTRA CREDIT:
Let’s translate the whole headline, Poliisin selitys ilmiölle: Helppo myydä eteenpäin. Polkupyörävarkaudet yleistyneet rajusti alkuvuonna Helsingissä.
It translates loosely as ”The police explanation for the phenomenon: Easy to sell, bicycle theft becomes sharply more common early in the year in Helsinki.”
MEANING:
Noun: bubble. (With a capital ”K,” Kupla refers to a Volkswagen Beetle automobile.)
This word can refer to a spherically contained volume of air or gas as well as to (in economic terms) a ”housing bubble,” as in ”an intense period of speculation in a market.”
MEANING:
Noun: ostrich.
DERIVED FROM:
Strutsi is a loan word coming from the Swedish word struts.
EXTRA CREDIT:
The word strutsi is also close to the scientific name for the ostrich, Struthio camelus. The scientific name comes from Latin, struthio which means ”ostrich” and camelus which means ”camel” alluding to its dry habitat.
Finnish Word of the Day 