Perkele

Perkele (Finnish: [ˈperkele] (listen)) means evil spirit or variation of words "god damn" in Finnish and is a popular Finnish profanity.[1] It is most likely the most internationally known Finnish curse word.[2][3][4][5]

For the Swedish band, see Perkele (band).

Origins

The name is of Indo-European origin; Perkwunos is the reconstructed name of the god of thunder. Other gods from cultures hypothesized from the same origin include Perkūnas (Lithuania), Pērkons (Latvia), Percunis (Prussia), Piarun (Belarus), Peko or Pekolasõ (Estonia), Parjanya (India), Fairguneis (Gothic), and Perun or Piorun (Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech republic, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia).

Some researchers consider Perkele to be an original name of the thunder god Ukko, the chief god of the Finnish pagan pantheon,[6] but this view is not shared by all researchers.[7] There are related words in other Finnic languages: in Estonian, põrgu means hell, in Karelian perkeleh means an evil spirit.[8][9]

Use

It has a history of being used as a curse: a cry for the god for strength. It still is a common curse word in vernacular Finnish. To a Finn, the word entails seriousness and potency that more lightly used curses lack. Also, when the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland held a popular contest to nominate the "most energizing" word in the Finnish language, one of the suggestions was Perkele because "it is the curse word that gave the most strength for the reconstruction of Finland after the wars."

Introduction of Christianity

As Finland was Christianized, the Catholic Church started to demonise the old Finnish deities. This led to the use of "Perkele" as a translation for "Devil" in the Finnish translation of the Bible. Later, in a 1992 translation, the word was rendered as paholainen (the evil one).

  • Many Finnish bands like Impaled Nazarene, Norther and Pepe Deluxe use the word perkele for emphasis and to reference Finnishness, while another Finnish metal band, Amorphis, have a song titled "Perkele (The God of Fire)", the sixth track on their album Eclipse.
  • The Swedish Oi! band Perkele were formed in 1993 in Gothenburg and are currently signed to Oi! the Boat Records.
  • In the webcomic Scandinavia and the World, Finland is depicted as a sullen, violent drunk who is largely mute, save for uttering the word "perkele" when things do not go his way.
  • In 2019's Control, Ahti, a Finnish janitor who is also hinted to be an enormously powerful supernatural entity, uses perkele as a crutch word when describing the weird events taking place in the Federal Bureau of Control.
gollark: Okay, Virtual OmniDisk is now available!
gollark: <@!151391317740486657>
gollark: Though its durability affects the whole tool.
gollark: Wait, no, it's handle *modifier* which the durability is multiplied by.
gollark: Yes.

References
  1. Kielitoimiston sanakirja. Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus. 2006. ISBN 952-5446-20-4.
  2. How Finns Swear and What This Tells Us About Their Culture
  3. Finnish swearwords – a list of profanities you shouldn’t know
  4. Advances in Swearing Research: New languages and new contexts. John Benjamins Publishing Company. 2017. ISBN 978-9027256874.
  5. Handbook of Finnish. E-painos. 2015. ASIN B015AM7Q90.
  6. Siikala, Anna-Leena (2013). Itämerensuomalaisten mytologia. Helsinki: SKS.
  7. Salo, Unto (1990). Agricola's Ukko in the light of archeology. A chronological and interpretative study of ancient Finnish religion: Old Norse and Finnish religions and cultic place-names. Turku. ISBN 951-649-695-4.
  8. "Miten suomalaiset kiroilivat ennen kristinuskoa?". Retrieved 2015-12-25.
  9. Suomen kielen etymologinen sanakirja. 3. Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen seura. 1976. ISBN 951-9019-16-2.
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