peruna

peruna

1. accusative singular definite of pera

Borrowed from Late Old Swedish pærun (“pear”) (compare dialectal Finnish Swedish pärun, perun and standard Swedish päron).^[1][2][3]

Originally meant “pear”, in which sense it has been attested since the time of Mikael Agricola (16th century). When potatoes were first introduced to Finland in the 18th century, they were usually called maaperuna (literally “earth-pear”) (compare Swedish jordpäron (“potato”), German Erdbirne (“potato”, literally “earth-pear”), Grundbirne (literally “ground-pear”)).^[1][2][3]

peruna in its modern sense is first mentioned in a 1787 dictionary by Christfried Ganander.^[2] As the potato grew in relevance, there was pressure to shorten the name to simply peruna, as potatoes quickly become much more relevant for Finnish speakers than pears. For the sense “pear”, the doublet päärynä came about as a more recent borrowing from Swedish, and ambiguity was thus avoided.

• IPA^(key): /ˈperunɑ/, [ˈpe̞runɑ̝]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -erunɑ
• Syllabification^(key): pe‧ru‧na
• Hyphenation^(key): pe‧ru‧na

peruna

1. potato, Solanum tuberosum (plant and the tuber)

   Synonyms: (informal) pottu, (dialectal or archaic) potaatti, (obsolete, dialectal) jyrkkö

   1800-luvulla peruna syrjäytti nauriin Suomen tärkeimpänä juureksena.

   In the 19th century, the potato replaced the turnip as the most important root vegetable in Finland.

2. (obsolete) synonym of päärynä (“pear”)

Now proscribed:

• “peruna”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

• peuran, rupena

peruna

1. definite accusative singular of pera