"Floss" in Finnish?

[j.petsku]

Is there a simple verb that means "to floss" (teeth) in Finnish? So far I've found:

Puhdistaa hampaat hammaslangalla

There's gotta be an easier way...right?

[Rip]

there isn't very short expression. "Puhdistaa hamapiden välit" would perhaps be more likely, even if does not explicitly state what you use for the cleaning operation.

[FinnGuyHelsinki]

'Käyttää hammaslankaa' is the shortest you can get. There is no specific verb for the activity.

[mrjimsfc]

'Käyttää hammaslankaa' is the shortest you can get. There is no specific verb for the activity.

Of course there is! It's just another word borrowed from english, "flossattaa".

[Upphew]

'Käyttää hammaslankaa' is the shortest you can get. There is no specific verb for the activity.

Of course there is! It's just another word borrowed from english, "flossattaa".

Flossata. Mä flossasin mun tekarit ennen baari-iltaa ja kato mitä tarttu syöttiin!

[kalmisto]

Flossata. Mä flossasin mun tekarit ennen baari-iltaa ja kato mitä tarttu syöttiin!

Yes, "flossata". And here you can see how "flossata" is conjugated :
http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/Finnish/flossata.html


My personal favourite among those conjugation forms is "älköön olko flossattu".

[Jukka Aho]

Flossata.

Yeah, you could do that to many English verbs. Finnish computer hobbyist/pro slang is littered with them: printata, bootata (buutata), formatoida, koodata (“to code”), editoida...

Don’t expect to see flossata in any official, published material though – such as in the educational booklets or motivational posters at your dentist’s.

[j.petsku]

Thanks for the answers, everyone. I had thought about the loan, but my guess had been "flossailla," which didn't appear to have any relevant google hits. I did run across one useage of "langoittaa" in this link, however:

http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammaslanka

My guess is that this would be a somewhat obscure useage?

[Jukka Aho]

Thanks for the answers, everyone. I had thought about the loan, but my guess had been "flossailla," :roll: which didn't appear to have any relevant google hits.

That would be the frequantive variant of flossata. Compare to pussata, pussailla.

I did run across one useage of "langoittaa" in this link, however:

http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammaslanka

My guess is that this would be a somewhat obscure useage?

You’ll get some more hits with this search, but not too many. It sounds like something a dentist might well use as the “official” Finnish term for the act of flossing but maybe it’s considered a bit too “technical” (or “field-specific”) usage for layman-speak. At least I hadn’t heard that before... it conjures up images of setting up an ansalanka (trap wire and tripwire in contexts of hunting and warfare, respectively) more than anything else. Or maybe something related to setting up sewing machines and looms for their intended use.

[silk]

"flossattaa".

Hmmm... minua flossattaa... that would mean "I feel like flossing" or "I have an urge to floss".

Some Finnish words don't have a single word English equivalent, e.g. harrastaa or ratsastaa.