So I don’t know about the little folk, but vägi does indeed mean some kind of unquantifiable strength, force, power. As an adjective (vägev), it’s closest to “awesome”, “mighty”, “great”. Yes, magical power is also vägi, but then outside of folklore and mythology, I’d dare say its meaning could be considered tangentially related to the Finnish “sisu”? As it sorta describes a person’s, a group’s, or even a nation’s ability to make things happen in the face of hardship.
I’ve gone shot for shot of neat vodka with alcoholics when I was younger… And I was the one still awake after 20 or so shots. But now I can’t stand the taste (I don’t think I could then either - luckily the guy whose birthday it was, decided to throw all his vodka in the freezer). I don’t think I’ve actually tried a vodka martini. I’ve had vermouth neat for some reason, but not a vodka martini. Given that I have half a bottle of some Ukrainian vodka I have no idea what to do with, I might go out and buy a bottle of vermouth to give that a try. Or I might combine it with orange juice later tonight because I already have some of that and I’m likely working till 5 or 6 AM (home office, software engineer, contracting, not an employee)
Orange juice and vodka is something I can’t even sniff anymore, or Fanta and vodka. It’s just… disgusting. This is mostly why I drink rum nowadays, I don’t have any traumas associated with it lol
But a vodka martini properly made is nice. The strength should be like 20-30% depending how wet/dry you make it. Some even make them “dirty” (this when instead of just adding an olive/orange peel, you actually add a little bit of the brine from the olive jar).
Vermouth neat isn’t that bad, but it’s kinda “thick” so to speak. Rich flavour. The vodka cuts through so well. Idk, it’s just a drink I like when it’s properly made. Fairly expensive to get from bars though. Perhaps not for you idk, although you guys aren’t that far away anymore in terms of price difference. It used to be a lot more when you guys weren’t in the Euro.
I’m jealous or a home office though. Or rather a position to use one. Oh well.
I was talking about modern usage of the word in Estonian, where it has less to do with the original magical forces and more about determination, fortitude and drive.
Interestingly, Estonian resources don’t mention the little folk. There is of course mentions of the word going back to Uralic roots and the concept of vägi potentially going back to the Neanderthals, but nothing on little people.
I do love how the English Wikipedia article on the Finnish Väki mentions vitun väki. That one has caused me a lot of grief in life lol
less to do with the original magical forces and more about determination
So… do you imagine that Finns still use the connotation from thousands of years ago?
It means the same thing here, more or less. I’m just talking about where the word comes from, originally. If you just go on the street and start asking / explaining about some magical connotations to regular words, people would be afraid of you, lol.
Finnish wiktionary doesn’t know it either. It’s only when you look at proto-Finnic that you’ll get these as connotations. The language from which both of our languages are from.
Usage notes
The sense “power, strength” now exists only in some compounds and derived words, such as väkivalta (“violence”), väkijuoma (“alcoholic beverage”), väkevä (“strong”), and väkisin (“forcefully”). A transitional sense exists in e.g. sotaväki, which can be thought to mean either military power or the people in the army; such words may have contributed to the semantic change
So I don’t know about the little folk, but vägi does indeed mean some kind of unquantifiable strength, force, power. As an adjective (vägev), it’s closest to “awesome”, “mighty”, “great”. Yes, magical power is also vägi, but then outside of folklore and mythology, I’d dare say its meaning could be considered tangentially related to the Finnish “sisu”? As it sorta describes a person’s, a group’s, or even a nation’s ability to make things happen in the face of hardship.
I’ve gone shot for shot of neat vodka with alcoholics when I was younger… And I was the one still awake after 20 or so shots. But now I can’t stand the taste (I don’t think I could then either - luckily the guy whose birthday it was, decided to throw all his vodka in the freezer). I don’t think I’ve actually tried a vodka martini. I’ve had vermouth neat for some reason, but not a vodka martini. Given that I have half a bottle of some Ukrainian vodka I have no idea what to do with, I might go out and buy a bottle of vermouth to give that a try. Or I might combine it with orange juice later tonight because I already have some of that and I’m likely working till 5 or 6 AM (home office, software engineer, contracting, not an employee)
Bro I wasn’t really asking.
I was telling you about the history of our language-tree.
Viro is a Finnic language and that is the etymology of Finnic “väk-/väg”
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Finnic/väki
Descendants edit
Sisu is a completely different concept.
Orange juice and vodka is something I can’t even sniff anymore, or Fanta and vodka. It’s just… disgusting. This is mostly why I drink rum nowadays, I don’t have any traumas associated with it lol
But a vodka martini properly made is nice. The strength should be like 20-30% depending how wet/dry you make it. Some even make them “dirty” (this when instead of just adding an olive/orange peel, you actually add a little bit of the brine from the olive jar).
Vermouth neat isn’t that bad, but it’s kinda “thick” so to speak. Rich flavour. The vodka cuts through so well. Idk, it’s just a drink I like when it’s properly made. Fairly expensive to get from bars though. Perhaps not for you idk, although you guys aren’t that far away anymore in terms of price difference. It used to be a lot more when you guys weren’t in the Euro.
I’m jealous or a home office though. Or rather a position to use one. Oh well.
I was talking about modern usage of the word in Estonian, where it has less to do with the original magical forces and more about determination, fortitude and drive.
Interestingly, Estonian resources don’t mention the little folk. There is of course mentions of the word going back to Uralic roots and the concept of vägi potentially going back to the Neanderthals, but nothing on little people.
I do love how the English Wikipedia article on the Finnish Väki mentions vitun väki. That one has caused me a lot of grief in life lol
So… do you imagine that Finns still use the connotation from thousands of years ago?
It means the same thing here, more or less. I’m just talking about where the word comes from, originally. If you just go on the street and start asking / explaining about some magical connotations to regular words, people would be afraid of you, lol.
Finnish wiktionary doesn’t know it either. It’s only when you look at proto-Finnic that you’ll get these as connotations. The language from which both of our languages are from.