tähti (Finnish)
Where does "tähti" come from?
The Finnish noun 'tähti' descends from Proto-Finnic '*tähti', which traces back to Proto-Finno-Permic '*täštä'[1]. The word shares cognates across related languages such as Karelian 'tähti', Estonian 'täht', and Erzya 'теште'[1]. Additionally, the sense of 'tähti' referring to a famous person or celebrity developed as a semantic loan from the English word 'star'[1].
Open questions
- The Proto-Finno-Permic form '*täštä' is possibly ultimately a substrate borrowing from the pre-Uralic languages of the Volga. [3]
Full etymology tree
- tähti (Finnish), 'star (luminous dot)'
- inherited *tähti (Proto-Finnic), 'star'
- inherited *täštä (Proto-Finno-Permic)
- borrowed pre-Uralic (pre-Uralic)
- inherited *täštä (Proto-Finno-Permic)
- inherited *tähti (Proto-Finnic), 'star'
Ancestors
- *tähti (Proto-Finnic)
- star (English)
Cognates and doublets
- теште (Erzya)
- täht (Estonian)
- tähti (Karelian)
Descendants and derived words
- aamutähti (Finnish)
- alijättiläistähti (Finnish)
- alppitähti (Finnish)
- daavidintähti (Finnish)
- Daavidintähti (Finnish)
- elokuvatähti (Finnish)
- filmitähti (Finnish)
- hiilitähti (Finnish)
- hiustähti (Finnish)
- huipputähti (Finnish)
- iltatähti (Finnish)
- iskelmätähti (Finnish)
Sources
- tähti (Finnish) - Wiktionary
- star (English) - Wiktionary
- tähti (Proto-Finnic) - Wiktionary
- steorra (Old English) - Wiktionary
- h₂stḗr (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
- h₂eHs- (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
- sterre (Middle English) - Wiktionary
- sternǭ (Proto-Germanic) - Wiktionary
Updated August 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris