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
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.