lohduttaa

Uncertain. Possibly a causative derivative of the dialectal verb lohtua (“to come off, melt off, thaw off”) (Kymenlaakso), thus “to chip off”, from which “to comfort” through figurative, possibly religious, use. Alternatively labialized from lahduttaa, in turn a variant of lauhduttaa. The former could be motivated by the word being present in the local dialects around Pernaja, the original hometown of Mikael Agricola (who wrote most of the early Finnish texts);^[1] possibly Agricola used the word figuratively in religious texts, from which it caught on in the literary language.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlohdutːɑːˣ/,
• Rhymes: -ohdutːɑː
• Syllabification^(key): loh‧dut‧taa
• Hyphenation^(key): loh‧dut‧taa

lohduttaa

1. (transitive, usually atelic) to comfort, console (relieve the distress or suffering of; to provide comfort to)

• “lohduttaa”, 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 2023-07-03