In the current sense, coined by Finnish physician and philologist Elias Lönnrot in 1860, based on the dialectal word kärhi (“pine whorl”). Probably a back-formation of the dialectal adjective kärheä (“rough, surly”), itself a fronted variant of karhea.
kärhi
| Inflection of kärhi (Kotus type 7/ovi, no gradation) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | kärhi | kärhet | |
| genitive | kärhen | kärhien | |
| partitive | kärheä | kärhiä | |
| illative | kärheen | kärhiin | |
| singular | plural | ||
| nominative | kärhi | kärhet | |
| accusative | nom. | kärhi | kärhet |
| gen. | kärhen | ||
| genitive | kärhen | kärhien | |
| partitive | kärheä | kärhiä | |
| inessive | kärhessä | kärhissä | |
| elative | kärhestä | kärhistä | |
| illative | kärheen | kärhiin | |
| adessive | kärhellä | kärhillä | |
| ablative | kärheltä | kärhiltä | |
| allative | kärhelle | kärhille | |
| essive | kärhenä | kärhinä | |
| translative | kärheksi | kärhiksi | |
| abessive | kärhettä | kärhittä | |
| instructive | — | kärhin | |
| comitative | See the possessive forms below. | ||