lumilinna

MEANING:

Noun: snow fort, snow castle.

DERIVED FROM:

Lumilinna is a compound term of lumi (”snow”) + linna (”castle” or ”fortress”).

Finnish Word of the Day 2014 Year In Review

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Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 31,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 11 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

toppahousut

toppahousut

MEANING:

Noun: snow pants, quilted pants (often worn by children in winter).

DERIVED FROM:

Toppa– is a prefix meaning ”quilted.” Housut means ”pants” or ”trousers.”

EXTRA CREDIT:

See more terms for Finnish winter clothes at Random Finnish Lesson.

lumiaura

lumiaura

MEANING:

Noun: snow plow (US), snow plough (UK)

DERIVED FROM:

Lumiaura comes from lumi (”snow”) + aura (”plow”).

EXTRA CREDIT:

The verb aurata means ”to plow.”

lumihiutale

lumihiutale

MEANING:

Noun: snowflake.

DERIVED FROM:

Lumihiutale comes from lumi (”snow”) plus hiutale (”flake”).

EXTRA CREDIT:

Kaurahiutale is ”oatmeal.”

jättiläinen

jättiläinen

MEANING:

Noun: giant, ogre.

DERIVED FROM:

Jättiläinen comes from jätti (”a giant”) +‎ –läinen (a suffix which when combined with a common noun can form a noun for people characterized by this noun.)

EXTRA CREDIT:

Iso Kiltti Jättiläinen is the Finnish name for The Big Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl.

joulukoriste

joulukoriste

MEANING:

Noun: Christmas ornament, Christmas decoration.

DERIVED FROM:

Joulu means ”Christmas” and koriste is an ”ornament.”

kiltti

kiltti

MEANING:

Adjective: kind, nice, gentle, tame.

EXTRA CREDIT:

”Oletko ollut kiltti tänä vuonna” translates best as ”Have you been good this year?” (As in what Santa Claus might ask a child.)

Kiltti can also be a noun referring to a ”kilt,” or a Scottish men’s skirt.

syttyä

syttyä

Syttyä appears in the 3rd person past tense form, syttyi.

MEANING:

Verb: to ignite, to be ignited, to catch fire.

EXTRA CREDIT:

Let’s translate the whole photo caption, ”Bussi syttyi tuleen. Matkustajat eivät loukkaantuneet” or ”Bus caught fire. Passengers are not injured.”

hukassa

hukassa

MEANING:

Adverb: lost.

DERIVED FROM:

Hukassa is the inessive singular form of hukka, which means ”wolf,” ”doom,” ”peril,” ”waste” or ”loss.”

EXTRA CREDIT:

Hukassa is used with the verb olla (“to be”). Hukkaan is used with mennä (“to go”), joutua (“to end up”) or other verb describing transition.