Esteellisiä

Esteellisiä is the plural partitive form of the Finnish adjective esteellinen. The term describes someone or something as virtuous, morally upright, or respectable, and it can carry nuances of traditional propriety. In contemporary Finnish, esteellinen is mainly found in literary, historical, or descriptive contexts rather than in everyday speech.

Historically, esteellinen has been used to refer to people or groups regarded as socially respectable or conforming to conventional norms. In discussions of social history, it has occasionally been associated with the idea of a traditional upper class or gentry, though the exact sense depends on the context and period. In modern prose, its use tends to be more literary or archaic, lending a sense of formality or antiquity to the description.

Grammatically, esteellisiä is the form used when modifying a plural noun in the partitive case, for example in phrases where the object is being described as part of a larger, indeterminate amount. The corresponding nominative plural is esteelliset. The word belongs to a broader set of adjectives formed with the suffix -ellinen, which conveys a qualitative meaning such as “characterized by.”

See also: esteellinen, siveellinen, hurskas, kunnioitettava, suomalainen vanha kirjallisuus.