Hävisi

Hävisi is the third-person singular past tense of the Finnish verb hävitä, meaning to disappear or to vanish. The form is used when the subject disappeared, vanished, or was defeated in a contest. In addition to literal disappearance, hävitä can also express loss in a metaphorical sense, such as information or resources no longer being present.

Grammatical notes: The present tense is häviää, and the past tense forms across persons are: minä hävisin, sinä hävisit, hän hävisi, me hävisimme, te hävitte, he hävisivät. The meaning of hävisi depends on context: it can denote physical disappearance or defeat. The noun form related to the concept is häviö (“loss”), and the act of disappearing can be described with häviäminen.

Usage considerations: Hävisi can describe both events where something becomes absent and outcomes in competitions where one side loses. With verbs of loss or defeat, the object is often in the genitive, as in joukkue hävisi pelin (“the team lost the game”). In a disappearance sense, it can refer to a person, object, or piece of information that has ceased to be present.

Examples:

Hän hävisi näköpiiristä. (He disappeared from sight.)

Joukkue hävisi pelin. (The team lost the game.)

Tieto hävisi arkistosta. (The information disappeared from the archive.)

See also: häviäminen, häviö, hävitä (root verb).