Can you translate this word please?

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JohnGibbons
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Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 3:27 pm

Can you translate this word please?

Post by JohnGibbons » Fri Nov 13, 2015 1:58 pm

Kätkäläinen! This was used by one of the guys in work a while ago and I asked what it meant, he couldn´t really explain it, nor could my missus or her family.
Anybody on here that could explain what it is? All I can find out about it was that it was a Finnish movie from 1980.

Thanks!



Can you translate this word please?

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Beep_Boop
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Re: Can you translate this word please?

Post by Beep_Boop » Fri Nov 13, 2015 3:44 pm

This is a tough one. It's highly dependant on the context and the guys background. Kätkäläinen itself doesn't really mean anything. Yeah, it can mean someone from Kätkä, but there's no place with that name.

It can be a reference to the protagonist in the novel/movie Kätkäläinen. He was a guy who had streetsmarts and was waging a one-man war against "The Man", trying to stop the authorities from spraying chemicals in the woods.
Another far-fetched explanation I can think about is the relation to the written representation of the giggling sound in the Finnish language, so kätkäläinen could be a reference to describe someone who laughs/giggles like that.

Let's wait and see comments by Finns with more diverse regional knowledge.
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Jukka Aho
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Re: Can you translate this word please?

Post by Jukka Aho » Sat Nov 14, 2015 11:17 pm

JohnGibbons wrote:Kätkäläinen! This was used by one of the guys in work a while ago and I asked what it meant, he couldn´t really explain it, nor could my missus or her family. Anybody on here that could explain what it is? All I can find out about it was that it was a Finnish movie from 1980.
Originally a character in the novels by Simo Hämäläinen. There are six novels in the series:

https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_Olav ... .C3.A4inen

Kätkäläinen sounds like a typical (Eastern) Finnish surname. Many of those end with the suffix -nen.

In the novels, however, the protagonist’s name is actually Pietari Aholainen. Kätkäläinen — or Kätkä for short — seems to be a nickname for him, derived from his place of residence, Kätkävaara.

Maybe the shenanigans of this fictional character caused someone in the movie or the books to blurt out “Kätkäläinen!” — in anger, or as part of a sudden (admiring?) realization that they have been had — and that got integrated into your friend’s personal lingo as sort of a humorous but too-difficult-to-explain catchphrase?

I have neither seen the movie nor read the novels so this is all based on what could be found on the Internet by quickly googling around.
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JohnGibbons
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Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 3:27 pm

Re: Can you translate this word please?

Post by JohnGibbons » Sun Nov 15, 2015 7:27 am

Thanks for the replies guys, it seems a bit clearer now.

I presume the word is purely from the movie as you say, so perhaps I might see if I can get a copy of it and give it a look!

Upphew
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Re: Can you translate this word please?

Post by Upphew » Fri Nov 20, 2015 11:33 am

adnan wrote:This is a tough one. It's highly dependant on the context and the guys background. Kätkäläinen itself doesn't really mean anything. Yeah, it can mean someone from Kätkä, but there's no place with that name.
In fact there are four houses named Kätkä that can be found on the map: http://kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi/kart ... ihaku.html
Probably not at all relevant to op and this case, but there are places with that name :)
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