kirkonrotta

Finnish Wikipedia has an article on:

kirkonrotta

Wikipedia ^fi

kirkon (“of church”) +‎ rotta (“rat”); identical in formation to Swedish kyrkråtta, so probably a calque in one direction or another

• IPA^(key): /ˈkirkonˌrotːɑ/,
• Rhymes: -otːɑ
• Hyphenation^(key): kirkon‧rotta

kirkonrotta

1. A children's game; variant of hide and seek that has a "home base" the seeker must return to in order to tag players, but if any hiding players reach the home base first, they are considered safe; often caught players can also be rescued by any such players.
2. churchmouse, church mouse (very poor person, chiefly in similes)

   köyhä kuin kirkonrotta

   poor as a church mouse

• karttupiilo
• kymmenen tikkua laudalla
• köyhä kuin kirkonrotta

• “kirkonrotta”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02